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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notas/IMotes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  tor  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
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the  usual  n  athod  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


□ 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couvertura  d«  couleur 


I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


D 


Couverture  endommag^e 


Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaurie  et/ou  peilicut^e 


I      I    Cover  title  missing/ 


Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  g4ographiqu«4S  en  couleur 


□    Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  blaue  ou  noire) 

I      I    Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 


n 


n 


D 


Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
Reli4  avec  d'autres  documents 


Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  re  Mure  serree  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distorsion  le  long  de  la  marge  intdrieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
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have  been  emitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  ceriiaines  pages  blanches  ajouties 
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mais,  lorsque  cela  dtait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  iti  filmiies. 

Additional  comments:/ 
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L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
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de  cet  axemplaire  qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du 
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□    Coloured  pages/ 
Pages  de  couleur 

□    Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommag^es 

□    Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Pages  restaurees  et/ou  pelliculdes 


Pages  fiiscoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 
Pages  d^color^es,  tjchet^bs  ou  piquees 


The 
posi 
of  tt 
filmi 


Orig 
begi 
the  I 
sion 
othe 
first 
sion 
or  ill 


I    Pages  detached/ 


Pages  d^tache^s 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Quality  in^gale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materit 
Comprend  du  matiriel  supplementaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 


r~1  Showthrough/ 

I      I  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

I      I  Includes  supplementary  material/ 

rn  Only  edition  available/ 


The 
shall 
TINl 
whi( 

Map 
diffe 
entli 
bagi 
right 
requ 
metl 


D 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc..  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalemert  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata.  une  pelure, 
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obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  de  reduction  indiquA  ci-dessct's. 

10X  14X  18X  22X 


/ 


12X 


16X 


20X 


26X 


30X 


24X 


28X 


□ 

32X 


Tha  copy  filmed  h«re  has  bean  raproduced  thanks 
to  tha  genarosity  of: 

Mills  Memorial  Library 
McMatter  University 


L'examplaira  film6  fut  raproduit  grAca  it  la 
g6n6ro8it6  da: 

Mills  Memorial  Library 
McMaster  University 


The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
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Las  images  suivantes  ont  6t6  raproduites  avac  ie 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettet6  de  I'exemplaire  filmd,  et  en 
conformity  avac  las  conditions  du  contrat  da 
filmage. 


Original  copies  ir?  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  w'th  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couvarture  en 
papier  est  imprimde  sont  film^s  en  commenpant 
par  la  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  la  second 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  film^s  an  commandant  par  la 
pramidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  at  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  — ^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED "),  or  the  symbol  y  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  clique  microfiche,  seion  Ie 
cas:  Ie  symbole  — »>  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  Ie 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 


Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upoer  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  fttre 
film6s  i  des  taux  de  reduction  diff6rents. 
Lorsque  Ie  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clich6,  il  est  filmd  d  partir 
de  Tangle  sup6rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  Ie  nombre 
d'images  ndcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivantc 
illustrent  la  m^thoda. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

HISTOEY 


OF   THE 


UKITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 


FROM  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  CONTINENT. 


BY 


GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


ai)e  2lntl)or's  Cast  UctJision. 


VOLUME    II.  ■      '%^ 

NEW   YORK: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY. 

1883. 


ii 


rOPYRWIIT. 

By    GEORGE     BANCROFT, 

•1876,   1SS3. 


CONTENTS  OF  THE  SECOND  VOLUME. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIZATION  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

OF  AMERICA. 


PART    III. 

COLOmZATIOy  0^  THE  WEST  Am>  OF  GEORGIA. 
CHAPTER    I. 


The  aristocratic  revolution  of  Engla  id 
Vindication  of  English  liberties.     The  church 


THE   SOUTHEKN   STATES   AFTER   THE   REVOLUTION 

The  fortunes  of  the  Stuarts. 
William  of  Orange.    Somers, 
Right  of  resistance 

ThoorVr"""'?'-     ^"fl"™^«"f  the  ■commercial  clashes    ." 
Theory  of  tho  revolution.    Power  of  opinion 

The  free  press.     Result  of  the  revolution  "         *        ' 

Colonies  reconstructed  on  revolution  principles       '         '         ' 

r;Sle"  To  'r°""-    ^'""•^"°"  "^  Loeke's'consdtution 
Arcnaaie,  the  Quaker  governor 

Progress;  Jlugucnots  enfranchised.     High  church  faction     ' 

Produce  of  South  Carolina.    Of  North  Carolina 

1  he  Anglican  church      .        .         ,  '        '        * 

Strife  of  parties    .         .        , 

Progress        .         .  '''■•• 

Virginia.  Its  form  of  government  "  '  '  "  ' 
The  burgesses  and  their  rights  and  privilege;.  The  church  ' 
-^t  hc.es  for  a  bishopric  in  Virginia,     ^araeter^n::;,,. 

Ja^;2::^rSea^^-^^^^^ 

The  proprietary  restored  on  becoming  a  Protestant        ."        ." 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE    MIDDLE   STATES    AFTER    THE   REVOLtTTION 

Pennsylvania.     Delaware 

George  Keith's  schism  ..'■■'•■ 

TOT,.   II.— D  "  ' 


PAGE 
W 

4 

C 

c 
1 

8 
9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

16 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

28 


24 
25 


\y 


CONTENTS. 


Fletcher  claims  the  government '"*2o 

Arrest  of  William  Punn .27 

Penn  restored  as  proprietary ..^ 

Legislation  on  negroes.     New  constitution o'J 

New  Jersey „, 

Its  eoiidition  without  government no 

It  becomes  a  royal  province og 

New  York.     Leisler o . 

Sloughter  arrives on 

Leisler  and  Milborne  executed gir 

Colonial  liberties  asserted 3g 

Dispute  between  the  Presbyterians  and  the  Anglican  church  ....  39 

Administration  of  JJellomont 40 

Lord  Cornbury.     His  arbitrary  administration 41 

Is  subdued  by  the  New  York  legislature 42 

Lovelace  as  governor 40 

Hunter 4. 

CHAPTER    11 L 

NEW    ENGLAND    AFTKIt   TUE   HEVOLUTION. 

Connecticut 4/- 

Commands  its  own  railitia.     Rhode  Island 48 

Colony  charters  endangered 49 

Massachusetts gO 

Revolution  in  opinion.     Belief  in  witchcraft 51 

Cotton  Mather.     Glover,  the  witch 52 

Skepticism.     Cotton  Mather,  the  champion  of  witchcraft        ....  53 
■\Villiam  III.  docs  not  restore  the  charter  of  Massachusetts     .         .        .        ,54 

Character  of  its  new  charter 55 

New  Hampshire  a  royal  province 5P, 

Mistakes  in  re-organizing  Massachusetts.    The  Mathers.    Phips  and  Stoughton  57 

Witchcraft  at  Salem gg 

The  new  charter  arrives.     The  hanging  of  witches  begins       ....  61 

More  victims g2 

Confessions.     Willard,  Burroughs,  Proctor 63 

Carrier,  Jacobs g4 

Last  executions.     Meeting  of  general  court 66 

The  delusion  over 66 

Revolution  in  opinion.     The  new  government 6*7 

Elisha  Cooke.     Joseph  Dudley 68 

Dudley  proposes  an  abridgment  of  the  charter  privileges        ....  69 

CHAPTER   IV. 

PARLIAMENT    AND    THE    COLONIES. 

The  republican  aspect  of  the  colonies    ........  70 

Aim  of  William  IIL     System  of  James  II 71 

The  system  of  governing  by  the  prerogative 72 


CONTENTS. 

Appointment  of  the  board  of  trade 

Its  plan  of  union.     The  oon.titution  proposed  by  Ponn 

I  arhamont  and  taxation.     Tl.o  prerogative  and  tl.e  veto        '        *        '        ' 
rhejudicmry.     Writ  of  habeas  corpus 

The  mercantile  sy.stem  sustained  and  developed  "'''^"«rUntal       . 

Courts  of  admiralty  in  America 

Laws  against  manufactures  In  the  colonies 

Opposition  to  the  mercantile  system 

Piracy.     Regulation  of  colonial  currency 

American  post-ollico.    Bounty  ou  naval  stores 

Tendencies  to  independence  . 

CHAPTER   V, 

THE   nED   MKN   EAST   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

European  colonial  system.     Mercantile  system 

Its  developments.     The  system  of  Portugal  .         .         *        ' 

Spain,  Holland,  Franco,  and  England     .°      '. 

Competition  between  them  

PoZE  °', "''  -f  """•     '"'"^  ^'-°°'^'''~'  "^''— -  Etchemins,  Abenakis 
1  okanokcts,  Lenni-Lenape,  Nanticokes,  Corees  ^^otnaius 

Shawnees,  Miamis 

ininois,  Ojibwas,  Ottawas,  Menomonies,"  Sacs',  and  Foxes 

The  Dakotas,  Sioux,  Winnebagoes,  Catawbas,  Woccons 

luoQuois,  or  Wyandot.    Ilurons,  the  Five  Nations 

Tuscaroras.    The  Ciikkokkks 

The  UcHEEs  ... 

The  Natchez,  the  Monn.iA.v,  Chicasas  .' 

Choctas,  Creeks  or  Muskohgees 

Numbers 


PAoa 
78 

74 
76 
76 
77 
78 
79 

80 

81 

82 

88 

84 

86 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   tANOTTAGES   AND   MANNERS   OF   THE   BED   MEN 

Tho.r  language.     Its  sounds,  symbols,  and  abstract  terms 
Its  synthetic  character.     Manners  of  the  aborigines 


86 

87 

88 

89 

90 

91 

92 

93 

94 

94 

95 

96 

97 

98 

99 


Marriage 

The  mother  and  child. 

Condition  of  woman 

Resources 

Hospitality.    Famine. 

Dress    . 


Dwellings 


Education 


Treatment  of  the-  sick,  the  aged 


CHAPTER   VII. 

POLITY   AND   REUGION   OF   THE   RED   MEN. 

Political  institutions.    Absence  of  law.    Retaliation 
Division  of  labor.    The  tribe 


.  101 
.  102 
103 
104 
105 
106 
107 
108 


.  109 
.  110 


i 


1 


;;j 

1 

?.     1 

1 

1 

■ 

■:.  i 

i 

1 

■ 

CONTENTS. 


Its  chiefs.     Its  councils         .... 
Treaties,  use  of  wiimpuni,  the  calumet    . 
War ;  its  glory ;  its  customs  ;  war-parties 

Treatment  of  captives 

Federal  republics.    The  Five  Nations    . 
Till  ir  local  governments.     Their  chiefs 
Their  war.-iorH.     (.'ouncilH.     (ieneral  congress 
Religion.    Idea  of  divinity.     Origin  of  faith 
Manitous.     Guanliun  spirits  ,        ,         .         , 

Sacrifices.     Pcnanco 

Medicine  men.    Temples       .... 
Dreams.     Faith  in  immortali*y.     Uuiials 
Paradise  in  the  soutli-wcst.     Ti)c  approach  of  death 
The  world  of  shades.    Graves       .... 


■■Alia 
111 

112 

ii:t 

114 
116 
110 
117 
118 
IIU 
120 
121 
122 
123 
124 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   NATrBK   AND   OKIOIN    OF   TIIK    KKD   MEN, 

Natural  endowments 

Lilco  powers  to  red  and  wliite  men.     Organic  differences 

Inflexibility  of  the  savage 

Uniformity  of  organization.     Physical  characteristics 

Progress  of  improvement 

Origin.     Mounds 

Analogies  of  language 

Of  customs.     Israelites 

Egyptians,  Carthaginians,  Scandinavians,  Chinese 
Astronomical  science  in  America  and  Asia     . 
American  culture  its  own.     Connection  of  America  and 
The  American  and  Mongolian  races 
The  red  men  and  the  unity  of  the  race  . 


Asia 


120 
126 
127 
128 
129 
129 
130 
131 
1,32 
133 
134 
135 
136 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PROOREBS  OF  FHANCE  IS    NORTH  AMERICA. 

New  France.     The  Hundred  Associates ISy 

Jfsuits .*.'!..'  138 

Their  missions  and  mode  of  life  in  Canada.  Brebeuf  .  .  .  [  *  139 
A  hospital.     Ursulinc  ccmvent.     Sulpicians  at  Montreal  .        .        .        .  140 

Progress  of  missions _  '  . ., 

Rayrabault  ft  the  Saut  Sainte  Marie  .....'.'.'."  142 
Jogucs  in  Tvestem  Xew  York *  ,40 

Bres.sani  .  .  '  '  '  ,^„ 
„.    .  ,     „ 143 

Mission  on  the  Kennebec j^^ 

Martyrdom  of  Jogucs.  Of  Daniel  •....'.'.*.*  146 
Of  Brebeuf  and  Lallcmand.  Missions  to  the  Five  Nations  .  .  .  .  Ud 
Dablon  ...  '  , , ., 
Rene  Mesnard.    Chaumonot j^o 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  X. 

FBANOE  AND  rUK    VALLKV  OF  THB  MI8flIfl«,pp, 

Focbloness  of  New  France.     Luuin  XIV.  makes  it  a  royal  pr„vl„oe 
T..e  Crenel,  at  the  Saut  Sninto  .Ma.ie.     Thei.  f.mher  advln  " 

?:r:;  v:;  t"' ."  ^•""'"•" '"  ^■^"•^"•^ «"  ''^^  Misses.,,     • 

DcHcent  of  the  .MissisHippi     ,        .  U"    •        . 

The  limit  of  their  voyage       .        ' 

Their  return  by  way  of" Chicago    .'"""''        ' 

Hiv-„L    p  r  ,.•  ^"ntcs.  with  parties  in  JS'ew  France 

Kivnlry  ot  JoUiet  and  La  Sallo  ""utc  . 

The  royal  grant  to  La  Salle.     His  preparations       ."        '        '        " 
Lia  baiio  m  Aiatrara  rivor      .*♦  n..       n         ™.  '         '        • 

ThelllinoiH.  ^^t  Green  IJay.    The  fort  of  the  Miamis 

TheKock.     Fort  Heartbreak 

Accaul'  and  rionnepin  at  the  fall/of  St!  Anthony "        '        "        ' 
ilio  InKpiois  and  the  Illinois      Tnnji      r.  i  *         "        * 

Kuin  Of  the  Illinois  village  by  tlXu'r'^"™"'^  °^  '^  «*^"° 

lo  takes  posses.,on  of  the  country.     Returns  to  Franco        '        " 
His  now  propositions  accepted        .  "'ranco        . 

The  naval  commander  jealous  of  La  Sall"e       "        '  *        ' 

Ti,e  result.     La  S,Ule  misses  the  mouth  of  th^  Mis;issippi      '        ' 
iift  halle  occupies  Texas  "'^aippi 

His  excursion..     He  departs  for  Canada 

His  death.    The  fidelity  of  Tonti  

CnAPTER  XI 

Feeble  condition  of  New  France 

•Jrigin  of  the  town  of  Castin      Ti,.  t    i-         \.    ' 
At  T>„         • ,  » -isiin.     Ihc  Indians  at  Cocheeo 

--eofthe,i^^:;;:::rs;:r'^^^^       •  ■ 

P^^nwarnire.     Heroism  of  Hann.h  Du^      [        '        '        '        ' 
Warfaie  in  Maine.     The  French  against  the  Moha;ks  .'        :        .'        ' 


VU 


PAoa 

.  119 

.  100 
.  161 
.  162 
.  163 
.  164 
.  160 
.  1S6 
.  167 
.  158 
.  15U 
.  169 
.  1(50 
.  101 
.  161 
.  162 
.  103 
.  163 
.  164 
.  164 
.  165 
.  166 
.  167 
.  168 
169 
170 
171 
172 
173 
174 


.  17« 

.  176 

.  177 

.  177 

.  178 

.  179 

180 

180 

181 

182 

183 


1 

1 

^^H 

■     i 

pH 

^1 

1 

.ulH 

J 

1 

via 


CONTENTS. 


""IK 

I 


VAtiK 

Anninst  tlu<  OnondftRftH  nn'l  OnridnM IN4 

Hii(^li»nil  l)l(Kliiv(li'tt  the  portH  of  Kiaiico  by  a  tlccroc.     F.HtabliHhoH  a  bank       .  1H4 

Till-  jK'uw  i)f  IlyHwii-k.    Tlu!  boiindiiiy  bctwetm  New  Fronce  and  New  Ymk  .  IHB 

The  r  nnii'Ii  III  Di-troit ;  in  Illi.ioiH;  iit  VliiuyniioH 18fl 

Tlio  inissitin  at  KaxkuHkiii 187 

IViirtaoola  and  .Mobile 188 

IbiTvilli'  iind  Uionvillo  riiidi  the  MisHiHsippi  from  llic  nca       ....  188 

An  Kni^ji-ili  i^iiip  enters  the  Mis«issiiipi  and  is  lu-md  back     ....  180 

Slow  proj(reHM  of  Louisiana IW 

Death  of  Ibcrviilo ,        ,        .        ,  101 

oi(\PTKU  .xir. 


THR    WAK   OK   TIIK   HI'ANISII    KroOESSION, 

War  of  till' Spanish  sui'ccsHion 

Kx|ieditio:i  (ifSoiitli  ('uiolinu  agiiin^^t  St.  Augustine 
War  with  tile  Spanish  Indians.     Aliaik  on  Cliurleston  . 
War  with  ti<e  Abciialjis.     Ihirning  vf  Deerficld 

tluniee  Williams  and  her  family 

Mas.sacrc  at  Ihivcrhill 

Hounfy  on  scalps.     CoiKjuest  of  Acadia 

Character  of  Holingbroke 

Plan  for  compiering  Canada.     Sir  llovenden  Walker  and  General 
Preparations  for  defence  at  Quebec       .... 

Wreck  of  the  licet  of  Walker 

Detroit  besieged * 

The  Tuseaniras.    The  death  of  Lawson.     South  Carolina 
France  desires  peace      ....... 

Peace  of  Utrecht.     lialanco  of  power     .... 

S')ain 


Hill 


Polgiinn.     P'ree  ships,  free  goods 

The  assiento.     British  slave-trade  .... 

Kngland  encroaches  on  the  colonial  niouopolj  of  Spain  . 
Surrender  of  territory  to  England  .... 

(MIAPTER   Xlli. 

OK    THE   1IOITNDAUIE8    OK    HKITIHII,    KHENOIl,    AND    SPANISH    COLONIES 

House  of  Hanover.    George  I 

Philip  of  Orleans.     Flcurv      Walpole    .... 
War  with  the  Yaraasseea.     llcvoluiion  in  South  Carolina 
It  becomes  a  royal  province.     Treaty  with  the  Clierokces 
Disputes  with  France  in  the  north-cast  .... 

Sebastian  Ilasles 

The  English  settlements  on  the  Kennebec 

Death  of  Rasles.     Lovewell's  fight        .... 

Peace  witli  cistern  Indians.    Bounds  on  the  lakes  and  St.  Lawrence.    Oswego 

Claims  of  England.     French  fort  at  Crown  Point  . 

French  fort  at  Niagara  .         .        .         .        . 


.  192 

.  10» 

.  104 

.  105 

.  ie» 

.  107 
.  lOS 
.  100 
.  200 
.  201 
.  202 
.  208 
.  204 
.  205 
.  20« 
.  207 
.  208 
.  200 
.  210 
.  211 


212 
21.S 
214 
210 
217 
218 
21 IJ 
220 
221 
222 
223 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


ClIAITKIt  XIV. 


IridifTcrpnco  of  VVulpolo.     VinccnncH 
The  MiMHiH.-i[)pi  company    . 


PHOOIIKHS   OF    LOrifllANA. 

ninindary  of  LiiuiHiitna 

The  Kicncli  oti  the  Ohio. 

LoiiiHiiinii  iiiider  (!r<i/.iit 

Till"  credit  Hydtctii  of  Law 

New  Orlcims 

\Vm-  iK'tw......  Franco  and  Spain.     Knd  of  tlio  MinniMHlppi  company 

1  ropliccy  ro.Hpcctlug  Now  Orleans 

Downfall  of  Law  .         ,         ,         . 

TheNateliez  ■•...[ 

Tlipy  bcj,'in  a  massnerc.     Are  defeated  . 

Tlio  crown  resumes  Loui.^iana.     War  with  tlio  Chicusas 

Artagnetto 

Vinccnncs 

Warronnwed.     Lonishuia  in  ITlO         .        [        '.        , 

Chapter  \v. 

COLONIAL   ADMINBT.{A'no>,    ,..v„Ku    r.tR    IIOl'SK   OF    HANOVER. 

The  colonics  after  the  peaco  of  Utrecht.     Corruption  of  the  ofllce-holdors 
Interference  with  American  iiidu.stry 

Character  of  Sir  KoLert  VValpole  ..*..'''* 
lie.striction.i  on  American  manufactures         .'        .'        .'.'*' 

The  West  Indian  colonics      ...  

Com„,ercc  of  the  eontinental  colonies  with  the  French  and  Dutch  islands 
1  he  interest  of  the  continent  sacrifice.l  to  that  of  the  i.-  lands 

Tax  to  be  levied  in  the  colonies  on  imports  from  foreign  colonics  ."        ' 

Disputes  of  Massachusetts  with  its  governor 

Plans  to  get  an  American  revenue         .  

Danger  to  charter  governments.  I)u„.n,;r  defends  "the  New  England  charter. 

Ills  success,    I  he  words  of  Trenclmrd 

The  aTTf  >f---I"-^tts  Hies  to  England  to'arraign  the  colony     ." 

The  duke  of  Newcastle  made  secretary  of  state  for  the  colonies 

1  he  explanatory  charter  of  Massachusetts 

Legal  and  o.her  opinions  on  taxing  the  colonies  by  parliament       .'        " 

Massachusetts  rebuked  by  a  vote  of  the  hou    ~  of  commons    .  '         ' 

New  Hampshire  constituted  a  separate  royal  government      .         '         "         ' 
The  political  ojjinions  of  Samuel  Adams 

England  strives  to  alter  the  land  laws  of  Connecticut     .■"■■■ 

Zenger  iudieted,  tried,  and  requitted.     Clark'and  the  xinv  York  aisemblv      ' 

The  colored  men  and  the  elective  franchise  in  Vi,-inia 

I'ublic  opinion  in  Penn.'^ylvania      .         .        .        ° 

Rarly  life  of  Benjamin  Franklin     ..." 


PAoa 
.  2.14 

.  22S 

.  226 

,  227 

228 

22S) 

230 

231 

2;<2 
2:i3 
234 
235 
230 
237 


.  238 
.  231) 
.  240 
.  2U 
.  212 
.  243 
.  243 
.  244 
.  24S 
,  24u 
,  247 
241) 
240 
2.50 
260 
251 
262 
262 
252 
25.3 
253 
254 
25.'; 
250 
257 

258 


I 


CONTENTS. 


Removes  to  1  hiladelphin 

Ilia  charai'tor 

Cliaraitur  of  liis  newspaper 

Tlie  church  in  Massachusetts         .         .         .         .  ' 

Paper  mor.jy  in  America 

Interposition  of  parliament.     Advice  of  Keith  to  the  government 
Act  of  parliament  for  naturalization  in  America 
Prosperity  of  the  colonics.     Great  emigration  of  the  Germans 
(•f  the  Scotch-Irish,     lierkcley 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

TITK    HKITISH    SLAVE-TRADE.       COLONIZATION    OP    GEOROIA. 

Motives  of  an  historian  to  write  a  true  history ;  test  of  truth 
Truth  in  history  can  be  ascertained.     The  law  of  progress 
History  tl  e  record  of  God's  providence.     Edwards,  Vieo,  Bossuet ' 
Jlctropoliian  :uonopolists  divided.     South  Sea  company  and  the  assiento 

Slave  coast.     The  slave  in  Africa 


England  and  the  slave-trade. 

The  passage 

The  Airic  n  in  North  America       .... 

Numbers.     Labors 

Progress ;  emaneiiiation.     Conversion  did  not  enfranchise     .         [ 

Color.     Colonies  and  the  slave-trade 

England  and  the  slave-trade.     Jloral  opinion         .         .        . 

English  legislation 

England  compels  the  colonies  to  admit  negro  slaves 

England  ami  Spain        ......'" 

Colonization  of  (Jeorgia  proposed.     Oglethorpe  and  imprisonment  for  debt 
Plans  a  colony       .        .        ,         , 

Oglethorpe  at  Savannah 

Council  with  the  Muskohgces 

Chcrokees  and  Choctas.     Lutheran  emigrants 

Oglethorpe  returns  to  England.     Land  titles 

Ardent  spirits.     Slaves.     New  emigration      ...!.'" 

John  and  Charles  Wesley       ....,' 

Whitefield _'         " 

Frederiea.     Daricn.     Contest  on  boundaries  ■....', 
Treaty  with  Indians       .        . 


PAOK 

.  a5U 
.  200 
.  261 
.  2B2 
.  2C3 
.  2l)4 
.  2()1 
.  205 
260 


.  268 
.  26!) 
.  201) 
.  270 
.  271 
272 
.  273 
.  271 
.  275 
.  276 
.  277 
.  278 
.  279 
.  280 
.  281 
.  281 
,  282 
283 
284 
286 
287 
288 
239 
290 
21)1 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

WAH    BETWEEN   GREAT    BRITAIN    AND    SPAIN. 

173!)-!  748. 
Oglethorpe  among  the  Muskohgees 
England  and  English  smuggi(<rs 
Tale  of  Jenkins's  ears.     The  convention 
War.     Anson.     Vernon  at  Porto  IJello 
Attack  on  Carthageua 


292 
293 

294 
296 
296 


"^^ 


PAOR 

.  259 
.  200 
.  201 
.  2ti2 
.  203 
.  2t)4 
.  2(i4 
.  205 
200 


.  208 

.    20!) 

.   20'J 

.  270 

.  271 

272 

.  273 

.  274 

.  275 

.  276 

.  277 

.  278 

.  279 

.  280 

.  281 

281 

282 

283 

284 

280 

287 

288 

28!) 

290 

2yi 


CONTENTS. 

Ill  success.     Oglethorpe  invades  Florida 

S|taniai'ds  invade  (Jeorgia       ....''** 

Character  of  Oglctlmrpe.    Slavery  in  Georgia".     Fleury  iuersc  to  war 

V  ar  .,1  the  Austrian  s.,coossion.     War  of  France  with  England 

Th(!  pretcnuur.     Frederic  II.  and  Prussia 

^\■ar  in  tlie  East  Indies.     Madras  taken 

i3ehring  discovers  North-west  Aniei'ica  . 

The  central  ])roviiices  undistur))ed.   Treaty  at  Lunc'aste 

Franklin's  volunteer  militia  . 

New  England  resolves  to  conquer  Louisl)urg 

Tlie  exj)edition  sails  to  Cape  Breton 

Lands  at  Louisburir 

The  siege 

The  surrender 

III  success  of  French  fleets.     Tlan  of  conquer 
Kahn's  opinion  on  American  independence 
Impressment  of  sailors.     Congress  of  Aix-la-i 
Frederic  II.  and  the  liberty  of  the  seas  . 
Washington  . 


ing  Canad 
■Chapcllc 


with  the  Six  Nations 


abandoned 


XI 

PAOE 

.  2!»7 

.   298 

.  299 

.  300 

,  301 

,   302 

303 

303 

304 

805 

300 

807 

308 

309 

310 

810 

311 

312 

813 


THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION 

IN  FIVE   EPOCHS. 
T.-BHITAIX  OVERTimoWS  THE  F.UliOPEAN  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 

CriAPTEii  I. 

A.MEIUCA   OtAIMS   L.OISLAT.VE   .N.)E..EN-n..VCK   O.   ENOLAXD.       „KN«T 

1748. 


The  approach  of  revolution   .... 

Anglo-Saxon  emigration  to  America 

The  unity  of  the  human  race. 

Christianity.     Mahomet  .         .         ,         ' 

The  continuity  of  the  lininan  race 

Its  progress.     History  records  that  progress  \ 

The  ollice  of  America     . 

Its  character  and  extent 

Character  of  the  thirteen 

Their  relation  to  the  metropolis      .  * 

Englisii  colonial  administration 

The  duke  of  Newcastle  as  colonial  minister 

He  makes  way  fur  the  duke  of  Bedford 


.  319 

.  320 

.  321 

,  322 

.  323 

,  324 

325 

820 

327 

328 

329 

33') 

331 


xu 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   BOTAL  GOVEUNOU    OF    NEW  YOUK  APPEALS    TO    THE    PARAMOUNT 
OF   BISITAIN.      IIENKY   PELOAM's    ADMINISTKATION  CONTINUED. 

1748-1749. 

Congress  at  Albany  in  1748 

Plans  of  Clinton  and  Coldea  for  government  of  the  colonies  . 
The  Massachusetts  delegation.     Shirley,  Oliver,  and  Hutchinson 
Treaties  with  the  Six  Nations  and  the  Mianiis 
Propositions  of  Oliver  and  Hutchinson  for  an  American  fund 

Boundary  claimed  by  France 

Indian  village  and  Jesuit  mission  at  Ogdensburg 

Clinton  and  Shirley  advise  coercion  of  the  colonies  by  parliament 

Murray  the  principal  adviser  of  the  crown 

Clinton  resolves  to  force  the  interposition  of  parliament.     New  York 
Halifax  and  the  colonies.     They  tend  toward  independence 

South  Carolina.     North  Carolina 

Virginia.     Pennsylvania.     New  England       ..... 
New  Jersey   ..... 

England  and  France  compete  for  the  Ohio  valley  .... 

The  claims  of  the  French  in  Acadia 

A  British  colony  in  Nova  Scotia.     The  Acadians  .         .        ' 

The  Micmac  Indians 

Halifax  goes  to  parliament  for  absolute  power.     Protest  of  the  colonics 

Massachusetts  becomes  a  hard-money  colony 

Intrigues  of  the  crown  ofEcors  in  America.     Firmness  of  New  York 

Charles  Townshend  enters  the  board  of  trade 

The  colonies  have  a  life  of  their  own 


POWER 


PAOK 

.  333 
.  333 
.  334 
.  835 
.  336 
.  337 
.  337 
.  337 
.  338 
.  339 
.  340 
.  340 
.  341 
.  342 
.  343 
.  344 
.  345 
.  346 
.  347 
.  348 
.  349 
.  350 
.  351 


CHAPTER  III, 

THE   EXPLORATION   OF    OHIO.      PELDAM's    AnMINISTRATION    COXTIXi 

A  new  system  of  colonial  administration.     Zeal  of  Halifax  and  Bedford 

Stamp  tax  proposed.     Spirit  of  New  England 

Jonathan  Mayhcw  preaches  against  tyranny  and  priestcraft  .' 

The  British  ministry  persist.     The  slave-trade 

Restrictions  on  American  manufactures 

Prophecy  of  Turgot       ....'"** 

Divisions  in  the  British  cabinet.     The  French  and  English  in  Nov 

Ilahfax  and  Bedford  disagree.     Newcastle  against  Bedford 

The  Engli,...  t.kc  Chiegnecto.     British  and  French  commissioners 

A  French  brigantine  seized.     Vermont.     The  Ohio  valley 

The  Ohio  Company  of  Virginia 

Gist  explores  the  country  west  of  the  Great  Mountains ". 

The  richness  of  its  lands.     Council  at  Picqua 

MesL:age  to  the  English.     To  the  French        .        .        .        , 

Gist  returns.     Second  journey  of  Croghan 


a  Scotia 


:ed. 

.  352 
.  353 
.  354 
.  355 
.  356 
.  357 
.  358 
.  359 
.  360 
.  361 
.  302 
.  363 
.  364 
.  865 
.  366 


CONTENTS. 


xm 


CHAPTEK  IV. 

AMERICA   EEFU8E3    TO    BE   RULED   BY   ASBITRART    IX8TBUCTION8. 
ADMINISTRATION   CONTINUED. 


1751-1753. 

Calendar  reirulated 


Lords  of  trade  pursue  their  design  in  detail. 

Plan  for  an  American  civil  list.     Postponed 

Colonies  left  to  protect  themselves 

Zeal  of  the  French        .... 

Plan  of  an  American  Union.    New  powers  of  tiic  board  of  trade 

The  Frencli  begin  hostilities  . 

Council  at  Shawnee  town 

Dinwiddie's  report.     State  of  England  . 

Projects  of  the  board  of  trade 

Measures  for  the  Ohio  valley.     Measures  to 

They  fail.     Chesterfie!  1  foretells  revolution 


educe  Xew  York 


PEtnAM's 


PAGE 

.  367 

.  368 

.  368 

,  369 

,  370 

.  871 

372 

373 

374 

375 

376 


CHAPTER   V. 


FRANKLIN   PLANS  UNION   FOR  TIIK   AMERICAN   PEOPLH.     PELIIAm's   ADMINIS- 
TRATION  CONTINUED. 


1753-1754. 

Progress  of  the  French  at  the  "West 

Protest  of  the  Indians.     Washington's  mission  to  Fort  LeEoeuf 
The  first  fort  at  Pittsburg,     Measure?  of  the  colonies 

Plans  for  taxes  by  parliament 

Washington  marches  toward  thn  Gnio.     The  French  at  Pittsbur" 

Combat  with  Jumonville      .....  ° 

The  affair  at  Great  Meadows 

Treaty  with  the  Six  Nations 

Franklin's  plan  of  union 

Franklin  advises  colonizing  the  West 


Congress  at  Albany 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   OLD   THIRTEEN   COLONIKS.      NEWCASTLE'S   ADMINISTRATION. 

1754. 

Hume's  prophecy.    Population  of  the  American  colonies 
Population  of  the  South         .... 
Number  of  white  men.     Of  black  men.     Georgia 
South  Carolina.     North  Carolina  . 
Virginia        •         .         .         . 

Maryland 

Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  . 

New  Jersey 

New  York     .        . 

New  England        .... 

Its  creed 


377 
378 
381 
382 
883 
384 
386 
38u 
387 
S88 


,  389 
,  390 
391 
392 
3P3 
396 
897 
898 
399 
401 
405 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  Vir. 

THE    MIXISTEKS    ARE    ADVISED    TO    TAX   AMEHK.A   BY   ACT   OF   PAKLIAME.VT 
NEWCASTLE'S    ADMINISTRATION.  ^'AMi-JNT. 

1754-1755. 

Dcatli  of  Henry  Felham.     Newcastle  becomes  the  first  minister 

Commons  subordinate  to  tlie  lords 

State  of  the  old  whi^  party.     Strife  with  Now  York      '. 

Plan  of  Amoiican  union  by  Halifax.     Parliament  invoked  to' tax 

Duke  of  Cumberland.    Eraddock  appointed  g-meral  in  America. 

Mutmv  act    . 

"  •        •        •         •        , 

Shirley's  plans.     Franklin's  opinions  of  them         ] 
Franklin  on  taxation  by  parliament.     Shirley  on  Franklin 
Want  of  concert  among  the  colonies.     Discussions  with  France 


America 


PAGE 

.  408 

,  409 

,  410 

,  411 

412 

412 

413 

414 

415 


417 
418 


The  clamor  of  crown  oiricers  for  taxation 
Hutchinson  on  the  right  of  America  to  independence 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

ENGLAND  AND   FRANCE   CONTEND   FOR   THE   OUIO  VALLEY   AND   FOR   ACADIA 
NEWCASTLE'S   ADMINISTRATION   CONTINUED. 

1755. 

Plan  for  1765.    Howe  captures  the  Alcide  and  the  Lys 

Braddock  advances  slowly     .... 

The  ninth  of  July.     Prepares  to  attack  Fort  Duquesne 

The  battle 

The  defeat.     Death  of  Braddock   . 

The  Acadians        .... 

Their  disaifcetion  .... 

They  are  disarmed 

The  English  take  Beau  Sejour 

The  removal  of  the  Acadians  projected 

Approved  of  by  Belcher 

Addn        i  General  Winslow 

The  Aeiulians  driven  on  board  ship 

Their  sufferings     .... 

Edmund  Burke's  opinion 


.  419 

.  420 

.  421 

.  422 

.  424 

.  425 

,  426 

427 

,  428 

429 

430 

431 

432 

433 

484 


CHAPTER   IX. 

GREAT  BRITAIN   UNITES  AMERICA  UNDER  MILITARY  RULE. 
ADMINISTRATION   CONTINUED. 

1755-1756. 


Newcastle's 


American  army  at  Lake  George.    Phinehas  Lyman        ...  435 

Dieskau's  approach.     An  ambuscade     .....'.''"  436 

Dieskau's  attack  and  repulse  .  .L 

•'•••..  4t)7 


CONTENTS. 


XV 


Shirley  faik  to  reach  Niagara ""f"" 

His  opinion  on  indopendcuce 

Musings  of  John  Adams 

French  ships  seized 


440 
141 
442 


England  urges  Russia  to  control  Germany      .... 

Pitt  op /OSes.     Soame  Jenyns  and  Rigby  become  lords  of  trade      .        .  .^^-^ 

Plans  for  17C6.     Dinwiddle  and  Shirley  urge  a  general  taxation  of  America  '.  443 

Washington's  self-sacrificing  spirit 

Affairs  of  Pennsylvania.     Activity  of  Franklin 

Lord  George  Sackville  on  the  constitution  of  America 

Appointment  of  Loudoun  as  commander-in-chief 

Foreign  officers  employed 

Cumberland  thought  of  for  king    .... 
William  Smith  pleads  for  an  American  union 


444 
446 
446 
447 
448 
449 
449 


CHAPTER  X. 

TIIB  AEISTOORAOY   WITnoUT   THE   PEOPLE   OANXOT   GOVEBN   E.VOLAND 
NEWCASTLE  8   ADMIXISTKATION    CONTINUED. 


1750-1757. 
Declaration  of  war  against  France.     Do  free  ships  make  free  goods  » 
Rule  of  175C.    Washington  commended  but  neglected 
Soldiers  billeted  in  private  houses 
Capture  of  Oswego  by  Montcalm   .        .        .        [ 
Loudoun  uses  his  array  only  against  the  Americana 
John  Armstrong  at  Kittaning 
Intrigues  in  the  English  court 
Pitt  forms  a  ministry  without  Newcastle 
Rejrets  a  stamp  act  for  America    .... 
The  king  discards  Pitt ... 


.  460 

.  461 

.  462 

.  453 

.  464 

,  465 

,  456 

457 

458 

458 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   WniO  ABI8T0CBA0T   OANXOT   CONQUER   CANADA. 

ADMINISTRATION. 
1757. 

Adventures  near  Lake  George 

Congress  at  Philadelphia.     State  of  Pennsylvania  * 

Franklin  its  agent.     Summer  wasted  in  America 

Prince  George  will  guard  the  colonies  against  free'thinking 

War  dances  .... 

Jlontcalm's  advance  toward  Fort  William  Henrv 
Its  siege        ...  J    •         • 

Its  surrender         ...  •         •        •         . 

Massacre  of  captives     ...'"'" 
Pusillanimity  of  Gritish  officers  Webb  and  Loudoun 
Last  war  of  Protestantism     . 


ANARCHY  IN  THE 


.  459 
.  400 
.  401 
.  402 
.  403 
.  404 
.  406 
.  406 
.  407 
.  408 
.  469 


XVI 


CONTENTS. 


CUAPTER  XII. 

THE    NEW    PROTESTANT    POWERS    AGAINST    TUB    OATDOLIO    POWERS   OP  THE 
MIDDLE   AGE.       WILLIAM   PITT's   MINISTRY. 

1757. 

No  one  dares  to  take  Pitt's  place ""^l^" 

He  forms  a  ministry  with  Newcastle "  '  *  4'7l 

He  know  himself  to  be  the  man  of  the  people        •        .        .  .  .  i12 

The  great  question  at  issue.     The  Catholic  powers         .         ]  '  '  '4/73 

Predcric  of  Prussia '  '  '  4^ 

State  of  France     ...... 

The  new  alliances.    Frederic  in  Bohemia.    His  defeat  at  Colin  ."  "  "  476 

His  retreat  and  reverses        ....  '  '   .hh 

Battle  of  Rossbach        .        .  ,H 

XT  478 

New  reverses  m  Silesia .^ 

Frederic  addresses  his  army ■        .         . 

Battle  of  Leuthen  saves  Prussia '        '  481 


H.'f 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CONQUEST   OF  THE    VALLEY    OF   THE   WEST.       PITT's   MINISTRY. 

1757-1758. 

Measures  of  Pitt  for  the  conquest  of  French  America    ....  482 

Self-imposed  taxes  of  Massachusetts.    SufTerings  of  the  Canadians        .'        "  433 

Amherst  and  Wolfe  sent  to  America "  ^g. 

Siege  and  capture  of  Louisburg     .  "        '        "  ..o^ 

(lathermg  of  troops  at  Lake  George ^og 

They  embark  for  Ticondcroga        ■••.!!!'"  48'7 
Death  of  Lord  Howe.     Foolish  order  of  Abercrombie    .        .*        .'        ."         '  438 

Rash  attack  on  Montcalm 

aiontcalm  defeats  Abercrombie.     Repulses  the  English  .         .'        ."         '  490 

Bradstreet  captures  and  razes  Fort  Frontenac        ••...'*  491 

Despair  and  courage  01  Montcalm .'        '         '  492 

Expedition  to  the  West.  Forbes.   Washington.   Rashness  and  defeat  of  Grant  493 
Washington  in  command  of  the  advance  party      ....  494 

He  enters  Fort  Duquesne.    The  naming  of  Pittsburg.    Thanksgiving,  and'why  ?  495 

Braddock's  battlefield 496 

Honors  conferred  on  Washington.    He  and  Frederic     ..."."        .'  497 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  CONQUEST   OF   CANADA.      PITT's   MINISTRY    CONTINUED. 


1759. 


Plans  for  17B9.    Successes  of  England 
Lord  George  Sackville  .        .         .         . 
Spirit  of  America           .        .         .        . 
Niagara  taken 


.  498 
.  499 
.  500 
.  501 


CONTENTS. 


XVU 


PAoa 

602 

603 
604 
606 
606 
507 
608 
509 
510 
612 


Inactivity  of  Gage.    Amherst  reaches  Crown  Point       .... 

Wolfe  and  Saunders  in  the  St.  Lawrence 

Tiie  St.  Charles  and  the  Montinorenci.    Point  Levi 

Quebec  from  the  river 

Wolfe  fords  the  Montmorencl ;  the  attack.     He  i.«  forced  to  retire 

The  brigadiers  suggest  landing  above  the  town.     Wolfe  prepares  for  it' 

Uis  reconuoissance.     Uis  plan.     Wliile  waiting  he  quotes  Gray 

The  landing.    The  ascent  to  the  Plains  of  Abraham.     The  battle  * 

Death  of  Wolfe "         ' 

Death  of  Montcalm.   Surrender  of  Quebec.  Joy  and  grief  "of  America.  England 

CHAPTER   XV. 

INVASION   OF  THE   VALLEY   OF   THE    TENNESSEE.      PITT's   MINISTKY. 

1759-17G0. 

George  Townshend.     Ellis.     Lyttelton 

He  provokes  a  war  with  the  Cherokees.    South  Carolina  opposes  him 

His  duplicity         .... 

The  Cherokees  in  council       .... 

The  march  into  their  country.     Lyttelton's  perfidy 

His  want  of  success  and  triumph.     The  Cherokees  do  and  suffer  wron-r" 

New  and  destructive  expedition  into  their  country                                  °  «,„ 

Hasty  retreat °^*' 

Fort  Loudoun  surrenders       .        .  


514 
616 
616 

517 

518 


621 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

POSSESSION   TAKEN    OF   THE    COUNTEY     ,>N   TIIE   LAKES. 

1760. 

Quebec  besieged  by  the  French.     Relieved 

Canada  capitulates 

The  earl  of  Bath  pleads  for  keeping  Canada  at  the  peace 


riTT'fl   MINISTRY. 


William  Curkc  and  others  oppose 

Franklin  rejoins    .... 

England  accepts  the  counsels  of  magnanimity 

Prophecy  of  American  independence.     Plans  for  taxing  America 

Pennsylvania  in  strife  with  its  proprietaries  and  with  the  lords  of  trade 

Lord  Mansfield  and  Edmund  Burke.     Increase  of  contraband  trade 

Bernard  governor  of  Massachusetts.     Hutchinson  cliief  justice 

The  lords  of  trade  advise  taxing  America  at  the  peace  . 

Death  of  George  IL       .        ,        .  '        " 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   KINO    AND    THE    ARISTOCRACY    AGAINST    THE    GREAT    COMMONER 
GEOROE    III.    DRIVES    OUT    PITT. 

1760-1701. 
The  king's  first  appearance  in  council    . 
Bute  in  the  cabmet.    First  impressions  of  the  new  king 


,  522 
,  623 
.  524 
525 
526 
527 
528 
529 
530 
531 
632 
533 


M 


534 
535 


! 


will 


CONTENTS. 


Tbe  elections.    Bute  'jecomcs  a  socrctary  of  state 
Xogotiations  with  France  for  peace.     Clioiac 
Magnanimity  of  Frederic 
Pitt  ia  not  eager  for  peace    . 
More  humane  views  of  Uedford 

Affairs  of  Spain 

Its  treaty  of  eventual  war  against  England. 
Pitt  proposes  to  declare  war  against  Spain. 
Pitt  resigns  ...... 

Accepts  a  pension         .... 


The  ultiraatissimum  of  France 
Is  outvoted  in  the  cabinet 


PAGI 

.  nao 

,  53V 
,  688 
,  630 
640 
541 
642 
543 
544 
546 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE   ACTS   OF   TRADE   PROVOKK    REVOHTION.      THE    KEMODKLLIXO   OF   THE 
COLONIAL    GOVERNMENTS. 

1761-1762. 

Acts  of  trade  resisted  in  Boston 54g 

Speech  of  James  Otis  on  writs  of  assistance 547 

Effects  of  his  eloquence.     His  character 043 

He  is  chosen  a  representative  of  Boston.    Virginia  opposes  the  slave-trade  .  549 
South  Carolina  desires  to  restrain  it.     Expedition  against  the  Cherokees        .  550 

Peace  established  by  mutual  concessions 551 

New  York  demands  good  behavior  as  the  tenure  of  its  judiciary    .        .         .  652 
Discontent  with  the  court  of  admiralty 553 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   KINO   DRIVES   OUT   THE   NEWCASTLE   ■WHIGS. 

REPUBLIC. 

1762-1763. 


THE  DAWN  OP  THE   NEW 


Federation  of  maritime  states.     England  offers  Austria  gains  in  Italy 

Prussia,  Russia,  and  England.     Conquest  of  Martinique 

Newcastle  retires.     Rousseau's  predictions.     New  cabinet.     Peace 

Renewed  striib  of  the  king  with  the  colonies. 

Bedford  to  negotiate  a  peace.     Siege  and  conquest  of  Havana 

Negotiations  for  peace.     Rupture  of  the  king  with  the  old  whigs 

Charles  Townshend.    James  Otis  ;  his  theory  of  government 

Ilis  popularity.     Opposing  opinions  in  Boston 

The  treaty  of  peace  between  England  and  France  in  parliament 

Success  of  Frederic 

Results  of  the  peace.     Diffusion  of  the  English  tongue 
England  will  tax  its  colonies.     Opinion  of  Vergennes  in  17C3 
The  old  colonial  system  self-destructive         .... 


.  654 
.  555 
.  556 
.  557 
.  558 
.  559 
.  660 
.  561 
.  562 
.  503 
.  563 
.  564 
.  665 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COLONIZATION 


OP  THE 


UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 

IN  THREE  PARTS. 

PART  III. 

COLONIZATION  OF  THE  WEST  AND  OF  GEORGIA. 
From  1688  to  1748. 

VOL.    II.— 1 


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S, 


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cliisGj 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   SOUTHERN   STATES  AFTER  THE   REVuLU'nON. 

The  Stuarts  passed  from  the  throne  of  En<,Wan(l  Dlstiu 
guished  by  a  blind  resistance  to  pupidar  opinion,  they  were  uo 
less  distinguished  by  misfortunes.    Uuring  their  separate  sover- 

a^!  T  '"f  7V"^  ''r'  '^  ^1-  «^«e  escaped  a  violent 
death.     Ihe  hrst  of  them  who  aspired  to  the  crown  of  Great 
Lntain  was  by  the  order  of  an  English  queen  sent  to  death  on 
the  scalfold ;  her  grandson  wits  beheaded  in  tlie  name  of  the 
English  people.     The  next  in  the  line,  long  a  needy  exile  is 
remembered  chiefly  for  his  vices;  and  James  11.  was  reduced 
trora  royalty  to  beggary  by  his  own  children.     Yet  America 
acquired  its  Bntish  colonies  during  their  rule,  and  towns,  rivere 
headlands,  and  even  commonwealths  liear  their  names     J,mes 
I.  promoted  the  settlement  of  Virginia;  a  timely  neglect  fos- 
tered New  England;  the  favoritism  of  Charles  I.  oifen   1  the 
way  for  religious  liberty  in  Maryland ;  Rhode  Island  long  cher- 
ished the  charter  which  it  won  from  Cluu-les  11. ;  James  II 
favored  the  grants  which  gave  liberties  to  Penns  dvania  ami 
to  Delaware;  the  crimes  of  the  djmasty  drove  to  ^ur  country 
men  of  learmng  virtue,  and  fortitude.    "  The  wisdom  of  God  " 
as  John  Knox  had  predicted,  "compelled  the  very  malice  of 
Sa  an  and  such  as  were  drowned  in  sin,  to  serve  to  his  glory 
and  the  profit  of  his  elect."  ^   ^ 

Four  hundred  and  seventy-four  years  after  the  barons  at 
Rnnnyinede_  extorted  Magna  Charta  from  their  legiZatt ' 
l^mg,  the  aristocratic  revolution  of  1(588  established  for  En^- 
^toZ  ^^«;onnnions  the  sovereignty  of  parliament  and  the 
upremacyof  huv;  the  security  of  property  and  existing  fran- 
chises; but  without  impairing  the  privileges  of  the  nobilkv. 


BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748. 


PAKT  III. :   oil.  I. 


The  clianicter  of  tlio  now  inunarcli  of  (}reiit   Britain  could 
mould  its  i)..li(.y,  hut  not  Itn  couHtitution.    In  politiwil  Kigacitj, 
ill  force  of  will,  fur  superior  to  the  Ku^rh-Hh  state- men  who  en- 
vironed him;  in..re  toleraut  than  his  ministers  or  his  parhV 
iiieuts,  the  cliildless  man  never  won  the  love  of  Knglaud.     In 
hiH  person  thiu  and  feeble,  with  oycH  of  a  hectic  lustre,'  of  a 
temperament  inclining  to  the  melancholic,  in  conduct  cautious, 
self-relying,  tixed  in  his  judgments  of  men,  he  relied  for  suc- 
cess on  his  own  inflexibility  and  the  ripeness  (,f  his  designs. 
Too  wise  to  be  cajoled,  too  firm  to  bo  complaisant,  no  address 
could  sway  his  resolve,  nor  did  filial  respect  restrain  his  ambi- 
tion.     His  exterior  was  chilling;  in  conversation  ho  was  ab- 
rupt, speaking  little  and  slowly,  and  with  rei)ulsive  dryness; 
yot  he  took  delight  in  horses  and  the  chase ;  and  in  the  day  of 
l)attle  the  highest  energy  animated  his  frame.     For  En<dand 
for  the  English  people,  for  English  liberties,  lie  had  ncralFec- 
tion,  inditferently  employing  the  whigs  who  took  pride  in  tho 
revolution,  and  the  tories  who  had  opposed  liis  elevation  and 
yet   were   the   iittest   instniments  "to  carry  the  prerogative 
high."     One  great  puiiiose  governed  his  life— the  safety  of  Ins 
native  country.     The  encroachments  of  Louis  XIV.,  which,  in 
1(!72,  had  made  him  a  revolutionary  stadholder,  in  KISS  trans- 
fonned  the  imi)assivo  champion  of  Dutch  indei)endence  into 
the  leader  of  tho  English  revolution  and  the  defender  of  tho 
liberties  of  Europe. 

The  English  statesmen  who  settled  the  principles  of  tho 
revolution  took  exporienco  for  their  guide.  Somers,  the  ac- 
knowledged leader  of  the  whig  party,  labored  to  make  an 
inventory  of  the  i)rivilegcs  and  liberties  <,f  Englishmen  and 
embody  them  in  an  act  of  parliament.  Freedom  sought  its 
btlo-de':ds  in  customs,  in  records,  charters,  and  prescrintion. 
The  bill  of  rights  was  designed  to  be  an  authei  lu  recapitula- 
tion of  well-established  national  possessions. 

The  statute-l)ook  of  tho  kingdom  knew  no  ucixc.  rule  ch'n 
the  unity  of  the  church.  It  was  tho  policy  of  Bacon  aln.  3t 
as  much  as  of  Whitgift.  A  revolution  made  on  tho  principle 
of  asserting  established  rights  and  liberties  knew  not  how  to 
set  about  reforms.  For  Scotland  the  claim  of  right  could,  on 
histoHcal  grounds,  recognise  the  abolition  of  Episcopacy.    In 


ms.  THE  SOUTHERN  STATES  AFTER  TIIE  REViiLUTION.      5 

EiiKlaiKl,  it  «a»  taken  f„r  f:m„M  tl,nt  tl.o  Aiiclican  drami, 

."u»t  m,  ,m»t  a,  tl.c  .mtiot.al  clu.reh.    1„  iJ.o  ,.„„v„,„ JS 

.•l,ar,Kc,l  tlte  dj™«ty,  tl.or.  wa,  „„  |,a,ty  „,„„,^,  „,„     i,",^ 

a  ry  .,„„„,,1.  a  vital  clm,«o.    TI,„  ki,,^  wi.sl,od  cncct  ,„; 

M.t  1..-  l»rl,a,„c.,„,  wo„l,l  not  ™|,|,„rt  ),!„,.    No  atate,n  an  S 

U  ,t  day  ,„-„|,.,»c.l  to  ,-„  l,a.k  to  tl,„  Hc-cond  «o,-W».|„„k  oTm. 

mvd  Vl,  or  to  rupfal  the  law  of  Cl.ades  II.,  which  for  Z 

to  a  Dtnoliee.     1„  the  eonvocation  of  the  eleryy  the  I'uritans 
wore  not  re|.re»ented,  for  the  tn.a.pealed  law'of  Ch  rfc 
1  ad  ..-,.„  thetn  o„t  of  the  church.    Kothin^  w,„  ,^0,1^ 
done  ,ey,„„l  the  toleration  act  of  the  convcnttn,  parUa mel 
The  old  law»  „,»,»tiMgon  confor.nity  wo,^  left  in  f„U  ™i™t 
Cath,.hc»;  Protestants  were  exen.pted  fron,  pcnaltiesfor      / 
^npp.n,,  in  what  the  .tatnte  called  conventicle    tvufd.:^ 
pre  Chen,  won  Id  Huhscribo  tho  doctrinal  article  of  the  ch  ,  ch 
of  England     Jint  even  this  narrow  liberty  was  yielded  o  Iv  t 
ho  pnct.  of  c  vil  dirfranchisetncnt.    The  ...iniitr y"  ISn 
onncl,  both  houses  of  parliatncnt,  the  bench,  Jl' ^ZfoJl 
plopne>,t.,  even  places  in  corporation,,  were  shnt  atain  t  the 
non-conf^rnn.,  to  whotn  the  En,«  con.itution'':^;  t 

In  Ireland,  persecution  was  tloul.lc-ecli.ed ;  there  uas  not 

ciples  ol  the  reforniatiou.      To  an  act    of   f...^^  f        ^ 
against  tliP  r..fl.  i;.  •  .  ^*    ternble  severity 

agai  St  tJic  Catholics,  provisions  were  attached  that  "if  on 
th    death  of  a  Protestant  land-o.-nei,  the  Protestant  ne';  o 

c ;  '^  he :: ::  r  *'  "t'^  ^'^^^^^^  '^^^^^^  ^<^  ^-  -  ^^ 

iciian,  Jie  was  to  be  passed  over  in  -fm-z^^  ^f  ' 

..-nber  „f  the  establiilnnent     xVe  Bh;  htst  acT  ''"'T 

ofthe  pea  '.'rf ',  "'^™'''f»'  ""^  ^="'  -"ice,  the  co.nmission 
"J  tut  pea.  V.',  aad  municipal  cori)o.aticiis  " 

Eut  the  V.^\^,  revolution  at  least  accepted  the  ri^ht  to  re 
sist  tyranny,  even  by  dethroniu-  a  dynasf v      Tl         ^ 


^M 


|;i 

f    1 

1      '- 

,5      ' : 

''*     '  : 

[1 

■       ;  1 
'  i 

' 

6 


BRITISH  AMEEICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  m. 


on,  I, 


England,  by  a  vast  majority,  declared  the  executive  power  to  be 
a  conditional  trust ;  and  the  hereditary  assembly  of  patricians, 
struggling  in  vain  for  the  acknowledgment  of  a  right  of  suc- 
cession inherent  in  birth,  after  earnest  debates,  accepted  the 
the  ry  of  an  original  contract  between  king  and  people.  The 
election  of  William  III.  to  be  king  for  life  was  a  triumph  of 
the  perseverance  of  the  more  popular  party  in  the  commons 
over  the  inheri ted  prejudices  of  the  aristocracy.  In  this  lies  the 
democratic  tendency  that  won  to  the  revolution  the  scattered 
remnant  of  "  the  good  old  "  republicans ;  this  appropriated  to  the 
^.higs  the  glory  of  the  change,  in  which  they  took  pride,  and 
of  which  the  tories  i-egretted  the  necessity.  This  commended 
the  epoch  to  the  friends  of  freedom  throughout  the  world. 

By  resolving  that  James  II.  had  abdicated,  the  representa- 
tives of  the  English  people  assumed  to  sit  in  judgment  on  its 
kings.  By  declaring  the  throne  vacant,  they  internipted  the 
dynastic  claim  to  the  succession.  By  disfranchising  a  king  foi 
professing  the  Roman  faith,  they  introduced  into  the  original 
contract  new  conditions.  By  electing  a  king,  they  made  them- 
selves the  fountain  of  sovereignty.  By  settling  only  the  civil 
list  for  liis  life,  they  kept  him  in  dependence  for  all  other  sup- 
plies, and  these  were  granted  annually  by  specific  appropria- 
tions. The  power  to  dispense  from  the  obligation  of  a  law 
was  abrogated  or  denied.  The  judiciary  was  rendered  inde- 
l)endent  of  the  crowm;  so  that  charters  became  safe  against 
executive  interference,  and  state  trials  ceased  to  be  collisions 
between  blood-thirsty  hatred  and  despair.  For  England,  par- 
hament  was  absolute. 

The  progress  of  civilization  had  gradually  elevated  the 
commercial  classes,  and  given  importance  to  towns.  Among 
those  engaged  in  commerce,  in  which  the  ancient  patricians 
had  no  share,  tlie  s])irit  of  liberty  was  quickened  by  the  cupid- 
ity which  sought  new  benefits  for  trade  througli  political  in- 
fluence. The  day  for  shouting  liberty  and  equality  had  not 
come ;  the  cry  was  "  Liberty  and  Property."  Wealth  became 
a  power  in  the  state ;  and  when,  at  elections,  the  country  peo- 
ple were  first  invited  to  seek  other  representatives  than  land- 
holders, tlie  merchant,  or  a  candidate  in  his  interest,  taught 
the  electors  tlioir  first  lessons  in  independence. 


1688.  THE  SOUTHLltN  STATES  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.       7 

Moreover,  as  tlie  expense  of  wars  soon  exceeded  the  revenue 
of  England,  tlie  government  prepared  to  avail  itself  of  the 
largest  credil.     The  price  of  such  aid  was  political  influence 
That  the  government  should  protect  commerce  and  domestic 
manufactures,  that  the  classes  benefited  by  this  policy  should 
sustain  the  government,  was  the  reciprocal  relation  on  which 
rested  the  fate  of  parties  in  England.     The  accumulations  and 
floatmg  credits  of  commerce  soon  grew  powerful  enou-h  to 
compete  with  the  ownership  of  land.     The  imposing  spectacle 
of  the  mtroduction  of  the  citizens  and  of  commerce  as  the  ar- 
biter of  alhances,  the  umpire  of  factions,  the  judge  of  war  and 
peace,  roused  the  attention  of  speculative  men ;  so  that  in  a 
few  years  Eolingbroke,  speaking  for  the  landed  aristocracy 
descnbed  his  opponents  as  the  party  of  the  banks,  the  com- 
mercial coi-porations,  and,  «in  general,  the  moneyed  interest  •» 
and  Addison,  espousing  the  cause  of  the  burghers,  declared 
nothing  to  be  more  reasonable  than  that  "those  who  have 
engrossed  the  riches  of  the  nation  should  have  the  manac^e- 
ment  of  its  public  treasure,  and  the  direction  of  its  fleets  and 
annies." 

Still  more  revolutionary  was  the  political  theory  developed 
by  the  revolution.     The  fated  period  of  arbitrary  monarchy 
was  come;  and  was  come  with  the  desire  of  all  nations.     It 
was  domed  to  be  a  fonn  of  civil  government.     Nothing  it 
was  held,  can  bind  freemen  to  obey  ai,  v  government  save  their 
own  agi-eement.     Political  power  is  a  trust;  and  a  breach  of 
.he  trust  dissolves  the  obligation  to  allegiance.     The  supreme 
po^.er  is  the  legislature,  to  whose  guardianship  it  has  been 
sacredly  and  unalterably  delegated.     By  the  fundamental  law 
ot  property  no  taxes  may  be  levied  on  the  people  but  by  its 
own  authorized  agents. 

The  revolution  is  further  marked  as  a  consequence  of  pub- 
ic opinion.  It  would  not  tolerate  standing  armies,  compel- 
ling A\  ilham  III.  to  dismiss  his  Dutch  guards.  A  free  discus- 
sion of  tlie  national  policy  and  its  agents  was  more  and  more 
demanded  and  permitted.  The  EngHsh  government,  which 
nsed  to  punish  censure  of  its  measures  or  its  ministers  with 
merciless  severity,  began  to  lean  on  public  conviction  Tly, 
wlugs  could  not  consistently  restrain  debate;  the  tories,  from 


ill 


'I 
1- 


I; 
t: 

in 


8  BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO   1748. 


PAKT  III.  ;    oil.  I. 


their  interests  as  a  minority,  desired  freedom  to  appeal   to 
popular  sympathy;  and  the  adherents  of  the  fallen  dynasty 
loved  to  multiply  complaints  against  impious  usurpation,  so 
that  Jacobites  and  patriots  could  frame  a  coalition.     It  was  no 
longer  possible  to  set  limits  to  the  active  spirit  of  inquiry. 
The  philosophy  of  Locke,  cherishing  the  variety  that  is  always 
the  first  fruit  of  analysis  and  free  research,  was  admired,  even 
though  it  endangered  dogmas  of  the  church.     Men  not  only 
dissented  from  the  unity  of  faith,  but  even  denied  the  reality 
of  faith ;  and  philosophy,  passing  from  the  ideal  worid  to  the 
actual,  claimed  the  right  of  ol)scrving  and  doubting  at  its  will. 
The  established  censorship  of  the  press,  by  its  own  Kmitation, 
drew  near  its  end,  and,  after  a  short  renewal,  was  suffered  to 
expire,  never  to  be  revived.    The  influence  of  unKcensed  print- 
ing was  increased  l)y  the  freedom  of  pariiamentary  debates  and 
of  elections,  and  the  right  of  petition,  which  belonged  to  every 
Englishman.     "  In  the  revolution  of  1688,  there  was  certainly 
no  appeal  to  the  people."     In  the  contest  between  the  nation 
and  the  throne,  the  aristocracy  constituted  itself  the  mediating 
law-giver,  and  made  privilege  the  bulwark  of  the  commons 
against  despotism ;  but  the  free  press  carried  political  discus- 
sions everywhere ;  inspired  i)opular  opinion  with  a  conscious- 
ness of  its  life;  emboldened  the  common  people  in  public 
meetings  to  frame  petitions  against  public  grievances ;  and  be- 
came a  pledge  of  the  ultimate  concession  of  reform. 

The  revolution  of  1688,  though  narrow  in  its  principle, 
imperfect  in  its  details,  ungrateful  toward  Puritans,  intolerant 
toward  Catholics,  fonned  an  auspicious  era  in  the  histoiy  of 
England  and  of  mankind.  Henceforward  the  title  of  the  king 
to  the  crown  was  bound  up  with  the  title  of  the  aristocracy  to 
their  privileges,  of  the  people  to  their  liberties:  it  sprung 
from  law,  and  it  accepted  an  accountability  to  the  nation. 
The  revolution  respected  existing  possessions,  yet  made  con- 
quests for  freedom ;  preserved  the  ascendency  "of  the  aristoc- 
racy, yet  increased  the  ^veight  of  the  middling  class,  the  se- 
curity of  personal  Kberty,  opinion,  and  the  press.  England 
became  the  star  of  constitutional  government,  shining  as  a 
beacon  on  the  horizon  of  Europe,  compelling  tlie  eulogies  of 
Montesquieu  and  the  joy  of  Yoltaire.     Never  had  so  large  a 


1689-1694.    THE  OAROLINAS  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.         9 

state  been  blessed  with  institutions  so  favorable  to  public 
happiness,  to  tlie  arts  of  peace,  to  tlie  deveiopuieut  of  its  natu- 
ral resources;  and  its  colonies  were  to  participate  in  the  bene- 
fit of  the  change. 

The  domestic  and  colonial  system  of  the  Stuarts  rested  on 
the  snnple  idea  that  implicit  obedience  is  due  from  every 
member  of  the  British  dominions  to  the  sacred  prerogative  of 
the  cro^v^l.     In  like  manner  the  convention  parhainent  and 
the  ministers  of  King  William  and  Mary  applied  the  princi- 
ples of  the  English  revolution  of  1G8S  to  the  reconstruction  of 
America.     The  revolution  restored  to  Great  Britain  its  free 
legislatm-e;  and  it  permitted  the  reassumption  of  leo-islative 
rights  by  every  colony  in  Avhich  they  had  been  suppressed 
Ihe  revolution  vindicated  chartered  rights  in  Eno-land-  in 
hke  manner  it  respected  colonial  charters.     TJie  revolution 
recovered  for  the  British  pariiament  the  sole  right  of  taxing 
Jingland;  and  the  analogous  right  was  reclaimed  by  the  le^ns- 
latures  of  America.  ^ 

But  when,  in  the  course  of  events,  the  government  at  home 
found  that  It  did  m)t  hold  the  colonies  within  its  control  in- 
fenor  and  irresponsible  boards  were  the  first  to  revive  the  bad 
precedents  of  a  wi-ongful  nse  of  the  prerogative;  or  insinuate 
that  pariiament  should  add  the  sanction  of  law  to  royal  in 
structions ;  or  revoke  the  chartei-s  that  protected  selfVovern- 
ment;  or  legislate  directly  for  the  colonies  in  all  cases  of  a 
difference  between  them  and  the  crown;  or  by  its  own  au- 
thonty  establish  a  new  and  complete  system  of  colonial  admin- 
istration.    But,  at  that  time,  no  responsible  ministry  would 
senoasly  undertake  the  change ;  still  less  was  a  persistant  plan 
transmitted  from  one  administration  to  another 

After  the  flight  of  James  11.  from  England,  order  was  main- 
tained m  Cakolixa  by  thr  people  themselves.  In  the  temtory 
south  and  west  of  Cape  Fear  the  larger  part  of  the  settlers  were 
dissenters  willing  to  be  the  supporters  of  order;  but  they  were 
repelled  by  the  party  of  the  proprietaries,  which  had  nothing 
better  to  propose  than  martial  law.  On  the  other  hand  the 
people,  m  KJOO,  accepting  the  authority  of  Seth  Sothel,'  the 
fugitive  governor  of  North  Carolina,  elected  a  legislature. 

liie  statute-book  of  South  Carolina  attests  the  moderation 


M 


'■ '     m' 


4 


tt 


10         BRITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    part  in.;  cii.  i. 

and  Hborality  of  the  laws  wliicli  derived  their  sanction  from  the 
rejiresentation  of  the  inhabitants  alone.  Methods  of  colonial 
defence  and  revenue  were  established,  and  in  May,  1091,  the 
Ilnguenot^,  so  far  as  it  could  be  done  by  the  South  Carolinians 
themselves,  were  clothed  with  the  rights  of  free-born  citizens. 

The  revolution,  from  its  respect  for  vested  rights,  at  once 
restored  Carolina  to  its  proprietaries ;  but  there  was  an  invin- 
cible obstacle  to  their  success  as  nilers.  They  coveted  a  larn-o 
personal  income  from  their  boundless  possessions,  and  were  not 
willing  to  imperil  their  private  fortunes  in  the  expenses  of 
government,  still  less  in  the  costly  process  of  reducing  insur- 
gents to  obedience.  As  a  consequence,  the  co-existence  of  a 
free  Carolina  legislature  and  the  prerogatives  of  the  proprieta- 
ries brought  on  a  succession  of  indecisive  conflicts. 

The  acts  of  the  peojilc's  legislature  having  been  rejected, 
Pliilip  Ludwell,  a  man  of  moderation  and  candor,  onc(!  collector 
of  customs  in  Virginia,  and,  since  1689,  governor  of  Noi-th 
Carolina,  was  in  1092  sent  by  the  proprietaries  to  establish  their 
supremacy.  He  had  power  to  inquire  into  gi'ievances,  not  to 
redress  them.  Disputes  respecting  quit-rents  and  the  tenure 
of  lands  continued ;  and,  after  balancing  for  a  year  between 
the  w^ishes  of  his  employees  and  the  necessities  of  the  colonists, 
Ludwell  gladly  withdrew  into  Virginia. 

A  concession  followed.  In  April,  1093,  the  proprietaries 
voted  "  that,  as  the  people  liave  declared  they  woidd  rather  be 
governed  by  the  powers  granted  l)y  the  cliarter,  Avithout  regard 
to  the  fundamental  constitutions,  it  will  be  for  their  quiet  and 
for  the  protection  of  the  well-disposed  to  grant  their  request." 
Palatines,  landgraves,  and  caciques,  "  the  nobility  "  of  the  Caro- 
lina statute-book,  were  doomed  to  pass  away.  The  right  to 
frame  a  new  set  of  constitutions  was  not  given  u]) ;  Imt  nothing 
came  of  the  reservation.  For  the  moment  Thomas  Smith, 
whom  the  peoiile's  legislature  had  disfranchised  for  two  years 
because  he  had  recommended  the  establishment  of  martial  law, 
was  appointed  governor.  The  system  of  biennial  assemblies, 
which,  with  sliglit  changes,  still  endures,  was  innnediately  insti- 
tuted ;  but,  from  the  general  dislike  of  his  pohtical  opinions, 
his  personal  virtues  failed  to  conciliate  support.  Despairing 
of  success,  in  109-1,  he  proposed  that  one  of  tlic  pi'oprietarics 


ICOi-nO-t.  THE  CAEOLINAS  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.   U 

sliould  visit  Carolina,  witli  ample  powers  alike  of  inquiry  and 
of  redress.  The  advice  pleased  ;  and  tlie  grandson  of  Shaftes- 
bury, the  pupil  and  antagonist  of  Locke,  was  selected  for  the 
mission.  On  his  declining,  the  choice  fell  upon  John  Arch- 
dale,  an  honest  member  of  the  society  of  Friends. 

^  The  Quaker  mediator  between  the  factions,  himself  a  pro- 
prietary, was  invested  with  powers ;  yet  they  permitted  him  to 
infuse  candor  into  his  administration,  rather  than  into  the  con- 
stitution of  Carolina.     He  arrived  in  Charleston  in  the  middle 
of  August,  IfiOo,  and  was  received  with  universal  acclamation. 
Ills  principles,  as  a  dissenter,  pledged  him  to  freedom  of  con- 
science ;  his  personal  character  was  an  assurance  of  amnesty 
to  political  oilenders.     Asserting  that  "dissenters  could  kill 
wolves  and  bears,  fell   trees,  and  clear  ground,  as  well  as 
churchmen;''  and,  acknowledging  that  emigrants  should  ever 
expect  «  m  a  wilderness  country  an  enlargement  of  their  native 
rights,"  he  selected  for  the  council  two  men  of  the  moderate 
or  "country  "party,  and   one  of   the  "proprietary."     This 
division  of  power  was  in  harmony  with  colonial  opinion.     By 
remitting  quit-rents  for  three  or  four  years,  by  regulating 
the  price  of  land  and  the  form  of  conveyances,  by  givino-  the 
planter  the  option  of  paying  quit-rents  in  money  or  in  the 
products  of  tl;e  country,  he  quieted  the  jarrings  between  the 
colonists  and  their  feudal  sovereigns.     To  cultivate  friendship 
with  the  Indians,  he  established  a  board  for  the  decision  of  all 
contests  between  them  and  the  white  men.     Tlie  natives  round 
Cape  Fear  obtained  protection  against  kiduappei-s,  and  in  re- 
turn showed  kindness  toward  mariners  shipwrecked  on  their 
coast.    The  government  was  organized  as  it  had  Ijcen  in  Mary- 
land ;  the  proprietaries  appointing  the  council,  the  people  elect- 
mg  tlio  assembly.     The  defence  of  the  colony  rested  on  the 
mihtia.     With  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine  friendly  rela- 
tions spruug  u]x    Four  Indian  converts  of  the  Spanish  priests 
captured  by  the  Yamassees  and  exposed  to  sale  as  slaves,  were 
ransomed  by  Archdale,  and  sent  to  the  governor  of  St.  Augns- 
tme.     "  I  shall  manifest  reciprocal  kindness,"  was  his  reply  • 
and,  wlien  an  English  vessel  was  wrecked  on  Florida,  the' 
Spaniards  requited  the  generous  deed. 

The  fame  cf  Carolina  increased  now  that  it  had  had  "a 


L  mi>t 


I, 


,14 
1,1 


I 


I 


12  BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    part  hi.;  cir.  i. 

true  English  government,  zealous  for  the  increase  of  virtue  as 
well  as  outward  trade  and  business ; "  and,  in  1C9G,  its  repre- 
sentatives declared  that  Arclidale,  "by  his  wisdom,  patience, 
and  labor,  had  laid  a  linn  foundation  for  a  most  glorious  su- 
perstructure." 

Archdale  remained  about  a  year  and  a  half;  in  March, 
1697,  immediately  after  his  departure,  the  Huguenots  were, 
by  the  ccjionial  legislature,  peraiaueutly  endowed  with  the 
rights  of  citizens.  Liberty  of  conscience  was  conferred  on  all 
Christians  except  pajjists.  This  was  the  first  act  in  Carolina 
disfranchising  religious  opinion. 

After  Archdale  reached  England,  the  work  of  proprietary 
legislation  was  renewed.  The  new  code  asserted  a  favorite 
maxim  of  that  day,  that  "  all  power  and  dominion  are  most 
naturally  founded  in  property."  The  journals  of  the  provin- 
cial assembly  show  that,  in  1702,  after  it  had  been  read  and 
debated,  paragraph  by  paragraph,  the  question  of  ordering  it 
to  a  second  reading  was  negatived. 

The  consent  of  non-conformists  had  been  given  to  the 
public  maintenance  of  one  minister  of  the  church  of  England ; 
and  orthodoxy  had  been  protected  by  the  menace  of  disfran- 
chisement and  prisons.    In  1701,  "  the  high  pretended  church- 
men," having,  by  the  arts  of  I^athaniel  Moore,  gained  a  ma- 
jority of  one  in  an  assembly  representing  a  colony  of  which 
two  thirds  were  dissenters,  abruptly  disfranchised  them  all, 
and,  after  the  English  precedent,  gave  to  the  church  of  Eng- 
land a  monopoly  of  political  power.     The  council  joined  hi 
the  eager  assent  of  the  governor.    In  the  court  of  the  proprie- 
taries, Archdale  opposed  the  bill;  but  Lord  Granville,  the 
palatine,  scorned  all  remonstrance.     "  You,"  said  he,  "  are  of 
one  opinion,  I  of  another;  and  our  lives  may  not 'be  long 
enough  to  end  the  controversy.     I  am  for  this  bill,  and  this  is 
the  party  that  I  will  head  and  countenance."     Dissenters  hav- 
ing, in  :N'ovember,  been  excluded  from  the  house  of  commons, 
the  church  of  England  was  established  by  law.     Lay  commis- 
sioners, nominated  by  the  oligarchy  from  its  own  number,  ex- 
ercised the  authority  of  the  bishop. 

The  dissenters,  excluded  from  the  colonial  legislature  and 
dismissed  with  contumely  by  the  pi'oprietarics,  appealed  to  the 


170G.        THE  CAROLLVAS  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.  13 

house  of  lords,  where  Somers  prevailed.     In  1700,  an  address 
to  Queen  Anne  in  their  behalf  was  adopted ;   the   lords  of 
trade  and  plantations  reported  that  the  proprietaries  had  for- 
feited their  charter,  and  advised  its  recall  by  a  judicial  process ; 
the  intolerant  acts  were,  by  royal  authority,  declared  null  and 
void.     In  November  of  the  same  year  they  were  repealed  by 
the  colonial  assembly;   but,  while  dissenters  were  tolerated 
and  could  share  political  power,  the  church  of  England  was 
immediately  established  as  the  religion  of  the  province,  and 
this  compromise  continue  ^  as  long  as  the  power  of  the  crown. 
Meantime,  the  authority  of  the  proprietaries  was  shakeli 
by  the  declaration  of  the  queen  and  the  opinion  of  English 
lawyers.     Strifes  ensued  perpetually  respecting  quit-rents  and 
finances ;  and,  as  the  proprietaries  provided  no  sufficient  de- 
fence for  the  colony,  their  power,  which  had  no  guarantee  even 
m  their  own  interests,  and  still  less  in  the  policy  of  the  Eno-- 
lish  govermnent  or  the  good-will  of  the  colonists,  awaited  onfy 
an  opportunity  to  expire. 

This  period  of  turbulence  and  insurrection,  of  angry  fac- 
tions and  populai-  excitements,  was  nevertheless  a  period  of 
prosperity.  The  country  raj)idly  increased  in  population  and 
the  value  of  its  exports.  The  proUlic  rice-plant  had,  at  a  very 
early  period,  been  introduced  from  Madagascar;  in  1691,  the 
legislature  rewarded  the  invention  of  new  methods  for  cleans- 
ing the  seed  ;  and  the  rice  of  Carolina  was  esteemed  the  best 
in  the  world.  Hence  the  opulence  of  the  colony ;  hence,  also 
its  swarms  of  negro  slaves.  ' 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  Carolina  Indian  trader 
had  penetrated  a  thousand  miles  into  the  interior  for  the  skins 
of  bears,  beavers,  wild-cats,  deer,  foxes,  and  raccoons.  The  oak 
was  cleft  into  staves  for  the  West  Indies ;  the  inmk  of  the 
pine  was  valued  for  masts,  boards,  and  joists ;  its  juices  yielded 
turpentine ;  from  the  same  tree,  when  dry,  lire  extracted  tar. 

But  naval  stores  were  still  more  the  pr-  luce  of  North 
Carolina,  where,  as  yet,  slaves  were  very  few,  and  the  planters 
mingled  a  leisurely  industry  with  the  use  of  the  fowling-piece. 
While  England  wrts  engaged  in  world-wide  wars,  here  the  in- 
hal)itants  multiplied  and  spread  in  the  eniovment  of  peace  and 
liberty.     Five  miles  below  Edenton  the  stone  that  marks  the 


11 


^i 


!  '!  ;! 


l^'W 


U         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.     part  m. 


on.  r. 


■ 


grave  of  Henderson  Walker  records  that  "North  Carohna, 
during  liis  administration,  enjoyed  tranquillity."  This  is  the 
history  of  four  years  in  which  the  people,  without  molesta- 
tion, were  happy  in  their  independence.  "  North  Carolina," 
like  ancient  Rome,  was  famed  "  as  the  sanctuary  of  rimaways ; " 
Spotswood  describes  it  as  "  a  country  where  there's  scarce  any 
form  of  government ; "  and  it  long  continued  to  be  said,  with 
but  slight  exaggeration,  that  "  in  Carolina  every  one  did  what 
was  right  in  his  own  eyes,"  paying  neith  3r  tithes  nor  taxes. 

In  such  a  country,  which  was  almost  a  stranger  to  any 
regular  public  v/orship,  among  a  peoi)le  made  up  of  Presby- 
terians and  Independents,  of  Lutherans  and  Quakers,  of  men 
who  drew  their  politics,  their  faith,  and  their  law  from  the 
light  of  nature— where,  according  to  the  royalists,  the  majority 
"  were  Quakers,  atheists,  deists,  and  other  evil-disposed  per- 
sons"—the  pious  zeal  or  the  bigotry  of  the  proprietaries, 
selecting  Robert  Daniel,  the  deputy  governor,  as  their  fit 
instrument,  in  17<)4  resolved  on  estal)lishing  the  church  of 
England.     The  legislature,  chosen  without  reference  to  this 
end,  after  much  opposition,  acceded  to  the  design ;  and  fur- 
ther enacted  that  no  one,  who  would  not  take  the  oath  pre- 
ecril)cd  by  law,  should  hold  a  place  of  trust  in  the  colony. 
Then  did  North  Carolina  first  gain  experience  of  disfranchise- 
ments for  opinions ;  then  did  it  first  hear  of  glebes  and  a 
clergy ;  then  Avere  churches  first  ordered  to  be  erected  at  the 
public  cost;  but  no  church  was  erected  until  1705,  and  five 
years  afterward  "  there  was  but  one  clergyman  in  the  whole 
country."     The  Quakers,  led  by  their  faith,  Avere  "  not  only 
the  principal  fomenters  of  the  distractions  in  Carolina,"  but 
the  governor  of  the  Old   Dominion  complained   that  they 
^'  made  it  their  business  to  instil  the  like  pernicious  notions 
into  the  minds  of  his  majesty's  subjects  in  Virginia,  and  to 
justify  the  mad  actions  of  the  rabble  by  arguments  destructive 
to  all  government." 

On  a  vacancy  in  the  office  of  governor  in  17(^r),  anarchy 
prevailed.  North  Carolina  had  been  usually  governed  by  a 
deputy  appointed  by  the  governor  of  the  southern  pj-ovince ; 
and  Thomas  Cary  obtained  a  commission  in  the  wonted  form. 
The  proprietaries    disapproved  the  a])pointment,  and  gav.^ 


1706-1714.    THE  OAEOLIN-AS  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.        15 

leave  to  tlie  little  oligarchy  of  their  own  deputies  to  elect  the 
chief  magistrate.     Their  choice  fell  on  William  Glover  ;  and 
the  colony  was  forthwith  rent  with  divisions.    On  the  one  side 
wore  churchmen  and  royalists,  the  innnediate  friends  of  the 
proprietaries ;  on  the  other,  "  a  rabble  of  proHigate  persons," 
that  is,  the  Quakers  and  other  dissenters,  and  that  majority 
of  the  people  which  was  unconsciously  swayed  by  democratic 
instincts.     From  1706  to  1710,  each  party  had  its  governor; 
each  elected  its  house  of  representatives.     Neither  could  en- 
tirely i)revail.     The  one  wanted   a  legal  sanction,  the  other 
popular  favor;  and,  as  "it  had  been  the  common  practice  for 
them  in  North  Carolina  to  resist  and  imprison  their  gover- 
nors" till  they  came  "to  look  ui)on  that  as  lawful  which  had 
been  so  long  tolerated,"  "the  party  of  the  proprietaries  was 
easily  trodden  under  foot."     "The  Quakers  were  a  numerous 
people  tJiere,  and,  having  been  fatally  trusted  with  a  large 
share  m  the  administration  of  that  government,"  were  resolved 
"  to  maintain  themselves  therein."     To  restore  order,  Edward 
Ilyde  was  despatched,  in  1711,  to  govern  the  province ;  but  he 
was  to  receive  his  eonnnission  from  Tynte,  the  governor  of  the 
southern  division.    As  Tynte  had  already  fallen  a  victim  to  the 
climate,  Hyde  could  show  no  evidence  of  his  right,  except 
private  letters  from  the  proprietaries ;  and  -  the  respect  due 
to  his  birth  could   avail  nothing  on   that   nmtinous  people." 
The  legislatm-e  which  he  convened,  having  been  elected  under 
fonns  which,  in  the  eyes  of  his  opponents,  tainted  the  action 
with  illegality,  sliowed  no  desire  to  heal  by  pnidenee  the  dis- 
tractions of  the  country,  but  made  passionate  enactments,  "of 
which  they  themseh-es  had  not  power  to  enforce  the  execu- 
tion,'|  and  which,  in  Virginia,  even  royalists  condemned  as  un- 
3ustihably  severe.     At  once  "  the  true  spirit  of  Quakerism  ap- 
peared     m  an  open  disobedience  to  unjust  laws :  Gary  and 
some  of  his  friends  took  up  arms;  it  was  nnnored  that  they 
were  ready  for  an  alliance  witli  the  Indians;  and  Spots v.ood, 
an  experienced  soldier,  now  governor  of  Virginia,  was  sum- 
moned by  Hyde  as  an  ally.     The  loyalty  of  the  veteran  was 
embarrassed.     He  could  not  esteem  "  a  country  safe  which  had 
in  It  such  dangerous  incendiaries."     He  believed  that,  unless 
measures  were  adopted  "to  discourage  the  mutinous  spirits, 


J 


it! 


!  ! 


i:i.: 


16  IJUITISII  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748. 


PAnT  III. ;  on.  I. 


who  liad  become  so  audacious,  it  would  prove  a  dangerous 
c\aini)lc  to  tlie  rest  of  lier  majesty's  plantations."     But  "  the 
ditKculties  of  marehiiifr  forces  inLo  a  country  so  cut  witli  rivers 
were  almost  insuperuhle ; "  there  were  no  troops  but  the  mili- 
tia, the  counties  bordering  on  Carolina  were  "stocked  with 
Quaiiers,"  or,  at  least,  with  "the  articles  of  those  people ; "  and 
the  governor  of  Virginia  might  almost  as  well  have  'under- 
taken  a  military  expedition  against   foxes  and   raccoons,  or 
have  attempted   to  enforce   religious  uniformity  among  the 
conies,  as  employ  methods  of   invasion   against   men   whose 
dwellings  were  so  sheltered  by  creeks,  so  hidden  by  forests,  so 
protected  by  solitudes.     The  insurgents  "  obstructed  the  coiirse 
of  justice,  demanding  the  dissolution  of  the  assembly,  and  the 
repeal  of  all  laws  they  disliked."     Si)otswood  could  only  send  a 
party  of  marines  from  the  guard-ships,  as  evidence  of  his  dis- 
position.    No  effusion  of  blood  followed.     Gary,  and  the  lead- 
ers of  his  party,  on  tho  contrary,  boldly  appeared  in  Virginia, 
for  the  purpose,  as  they  said,  of  appealing  to  PJngland  in  defence 
of  their  actions  ;  and  Spotswood  compelled  them  to  take  their 
passage  in  the  men-of-war  that  were  just  returning.    But  North 
Carolina  remained  as  before ;  its  burgesses,  obeying  the  popular 
judgment,  "  refused  to  make  provision  for  defending  any  part 
of  their  country,"  unless  "  they  could  introduce  into  the  gov- 
ernment the  persons  most  obnoxious  for  the  late  rebellion  • " 
and  therefore,  in  Feljruary,  1712,  the  assembly  was  dissolved. 
There  was  little  hope  of  hamiony  between  the  proprietaries  and 
the  inhal)itant8  of  North  Carolina. 

But  here,  as  elsewhere  in  America,  this  turbulence  of  free- 
dom did  not  check  the  increase  of  population ;  the  province, 
from  its  first  permanent  occupation  by  white  men,  has  always 
exceeded  South  Carolina  in  numbers.     At  the  confluence  of 
the  Trent  and  tlie  Neuse,  emigrants  from  SAntzerland,  in  1710, 
began  the  settlement  of  New  Berne.     German  fugitives  from 
the  devastated  Palatinate  found  a  home  in  the  same  vicinity. 
In  these  early  days  few  negroes  were  introduced  into  the  col- 
ony.    Its  trade  was  chiefly  engrossed  by  New  England.     The 
increasing  expenses  of  the  government  amounted^  in  1714,  to 
nine  hundred  pounds.     The  suii^lus  revenue  to  the  proprieta- 
ries, by  sales  of  land  and  quit-rents,  was  but  one  hundred  and 


1691-1718.     VIRGINIA  AFTEK  THE  REVOLUTION.  j/y 

Bixty-iiino  poundH,  or  twenty  guineas  to  oacl.  proprietary 
There  wm  no  separate  building  for  a  court-house  till  1722  • 
no  printing-press  till  1754.  ' 

Before  the  end  of  April  1089,  the  accession  of  the  prince 
and  pnncess  of  Orange  wa^  proclaimed  in  Virginia  l.y  order 
of  t he  c<,uncil.     In  March  1001,  Francis  Nicholson  became 
Lord  Llhngham  s  lieutenant  in  VruGLviA.     He  met  his  first 
assembly  on  the  sixteenth  of  April  lOUl.     The  burgesses  un- 
mediately  mstrueted  Jeffrie  Jeoffryes,  their  agent  hf  London, 
to     supplicate  their  majesties  to  confirm  unto  the  country  the 
authority  of  the  general  assembly,  consisting  of  the  goyemor 
council,  and  burgesses,  as  near  as  may  bo  to  the  model  of  the 
parliament  of  England,  to  enact  laws  and  statutes  for  the  got 
enmient  of  this  coimtry  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England  • 
that  no  tax  or  nnp    -ion  be  made,  leyied,  or  raised  upon  any 
0   Its  peop  e  but  by  the  consent  of  their  general  assemb  y ;  Z 
they  and  their  ehilda-en  may  have  equal  rights  and  priileges 
with  all  natural-bom  subjects  of  the  realm  of  England,  audi 
goy^l,  as  near  as  possible,  under  the  same  method  they  are 
and  have  the  full  benefit  of  the  great  charter  and  of  alfEnl: 

and  that  there  may  be  no  appeals  from  their  courts  to  England 
The  coimcil  joined  with  the  burgesses  in  praying  for  the 

confirmation   of  lands  already  granted  and    con  inning  the 
power  of  grantmg  the  public  lands.     They  desired  the  tgen 
of  the  colony  "to  take  more  than  ordinary  care  that  the  r 
majesties  may  reunite  the  northern  neck  to  its  ancient  govern' 
ment ;     and  '  for  the  future  not  grant  lands  in  Yirginifunder 

he  great  seal  without  first  being  informed  by  the  governor 

grant  will  not  be  prejudicial  to  the  country  here  "  * 
pnyers  f;tf  f  "'^™"^  ^^^er  the  revolution  respected  the 
S?    !^  '^^^"•S^^^*"^  ^^  regard  to  land;  but  indined  as 
h  tie  as  the  Stuarts  to  acknowledge  that  their  house  of  bur- 

that  they  could  claim  by  right  the  benefits  of  Magna  ChartL 


gcssoi 

to  tl) 


*  Compare  two  letters  of  instruction  to  Jeoflfrve.,  from  the  council  .,,!  h„v 


etary 


tate,  10  June,  luui,  and  26  February,  1092.     MSS. 


VOL.    II, — 2 


;: 


v.'i 


I 


'  }■ 

1 

..il 

1 

18  lUilTISII  AMEItlOA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    PABTin.;  on.  i. 


In  concert  with  the  Houtenatit-govemor,  the  burgesses  and 
council  sent  James  Bliiir  the  commissary  to  England.  In  con- 
8e(inencc  of  his  zeal,  the  college  of  William  and  Mary,  in  ago 
second  only  to  Harvard,  was  founded  and  modestly  endowed. 

A  law  of  1082  for  advancing  the  manufacture  of  articles 
grown  in  the  country,  such  as  Hax,  wool,  and  furs,  was  revived. 
The  permanent  revenue  which  Virginia  had  established 
was  used  in  part  to  pay  a  large  salary  to  the  sinecure  governor 
in  chief  of  the  colony  who  resided  in  England.  Made  wise  by 
experience,  the  burgesses  of  Virginia,  like  those  of  Jamaica  and 
other  colonies,  in  granting  additional  supplies,  insisted  upon 
nominating  their  own  treasiirer,  subject  to  their  orders  without 
further  warrant  from  the  governor. 

Carefid  to  conciliate  the  assembly,  Nicholson  made  no  op- 
position to  any  of  its  acts  ;  but  he  excused  himself  to  the  sec- 
retary of  state  for  the  law  encouraging  domestic  manufactures. 
"  The  merchant,"  ho  wrote,  "  had  rather  that  no  more  ships 
come  hither  than  will  export  half  of  the  tobacco  ;  and  then  the 
planters  must  let  him  have  it  at  what  rate  he  pleases,  and 
he  soUeth  it  very  dear.  But  if  neither  goods  nor  ships  come, 
necessity  will  force  the  people  to  leave  olf  planting  tobacco 
and  clothe  themselves." 

He  was  impatient  "  till  their  majesties  should  place  their 
own  governors "  over  Pemisylvania,  Maryland,  the  Carolinas, 
and  New  England,  for  they  might  otherwise  become  "fatal 
examples  by  encouraging  the  mob,"  and  they  already  harbored 
runaway  servants  and  debtors  and  slaves. 

On  the  twentieth  of  September  1092,  Sir  Edmund  Andros, 
governor-general  of  Virginia,  published  his  commission  in 
James  City,  "^t  fell  to  him  to  introduce  the  general  post-office 
which  seven  months  before  had  been  authorized  within  the 
cliief  ports  of  British  America  under  the  great  seal  of  England. 
The  constitution  of  the  church  in  Virginia  cherished  colo- 
nial freedom  ;  for  the  act  of  1042,  which  established  it,  re- 
served the  right  of  presentation  to  the  parish.  The  license  of 
the  bishop  of  London  and  the  recommendation  of  the  governor 
availed,  therefore,  but  little.  Sometimes  the  parish  rendered 
the  establishment  nugatory  by  its  indolence  of  action ;  some- 
times the  minister,  if  acceptable  to  the  congregation,  was  re- 


1700-1711.      VnUilNIA    AFTER  THE  liEVOLUTIOM.  i„ 

ceivcd,  l„,l  not  pro.e„to,l.  It  „.„«  tl,o  Konoral  on.tom  to  l,i,« 
tho  nun  » tar  fron.  year  to  year.  In  l-„3  a  lesal  «pi„ion  Z 
ohta.ned  tmn,  E„,Ha,„l,  that  „,„  n.inirtor  i,  a.rincmnbent  o^ 
1..C  a,„    cannot  h.  ,li«p|a„„d   l,y  1,U  parW,i„no„ ;   1,      tt 

mdnct,„„.,„  tl,a.  I.o  anpnrod  n„  f^ohold  in  I  i,  liv"  ^^„^d 
n Mght  lo  romovcl  at  pl.a,urc.  Nor  «a.,  .!,„  „I,an>ctor  o  the 
c  or^y  who  camo  over  ahvays  snitcl  to  win  affection  or  r  "«  ■„ 
11.0  panshes,  niorcovor,  were  of  such  IcnRtl,  that  so.nc  of  the 
poope  hvcd  (iftynnloH  fro,,,  tl,o  parish  .-hui-eh  a^^d  La^ 
»o,„l,  V  wo,,l.l  n,,t  in,:,.oa.,e  ,l,o  ta.xj  I,y  cl,«„«i,  ^ '„™  ,„  ° ^ 

hclus,,,      l,re, toned  "toowp  into  the  cin.rch,"  and  to  ^n- 

"ft  ;;!',r„;°  °  ^■'•"' «"™""»--"  Ar^idct  prd » 

was  tho„-htof  as  a  rcn,eily,  and  atone  time  "all  the  hone, 

of  Jo,.athan  Swift  ton,u-,,ated  in  the  hi.,l,opric  of  V  ,"    ,vr 

The  greatest  sateffiiard  of  liherty  was  the  ,-,„Il„i  i    ,  i 

heTn  of  1  '■'"'"""l™  ''""«  "P^rt  on  their  plantation..    In 
the  age  of  eomn,e,-e,al  monopoly,  Virginia  had  not  one  n,..rket 
tow,,,  no    one  ph,ce  of  tra,le.     It,  inhabitants  "dadJ  gw 
...ore  and  ,nore  avor«,  to  cohahitation ; "  so  that  "7-0  0,^ 
wanl  „ppea™,ce,  it  looked  all  like  a  IriW  d  St "    Briti  t 
sh.p.,  were  ohliged  to  lie  for  n.onths  in  the  rive,."    fore  ,«! 
v,s,t..,g  the  several  pla,.tatio,«  on  their  banks,  eo  ,ld  p  d  .Ta 
c^rgo.    Ihe  colony  did  not  seek  to  share  aetivdy  in  tl  e    ,-X 
of  eo.,„„e..ee;  ,t  had  little  of  the  Kecions  n.etals,  or  of  c S 
was  sat,sflod  with  agricnltnre.    Taxes  wwo  „•,!,)!„,  7        ' 
rc...it.a„ees  to  Europe  were  ,nade  .^tl     o  1^ ^  ^^^ 
he  elergy,  and  the  magistrates,  and  the  eolonV,  was  ™  "etel 
m  rt,e  sa,„e  currency;  the  colonial  t.^des,uan  rjceived  1 ,1  nv 

wc.r  f;  Sr  '  f,"-    f  •''»'■*  -"•  ''-—on  IlX^ 

M  llvl  tl        •  •   '  •    •  '""'  "»"'Wi*«I  law,  they  reasoned 
Iwldlj  m  their  sochision.     It  was  said  in  IT,,'!-  "P,.   •  • 
not  0..S  fnt.,1  t.^  t).„        ,  "~  "'"""'  i '"■5.  "Fei'n.cious 

and      '     t  V         ."'•''•■''  I"-«™K'"ive,  were  hnproving  daily  • " 
and,  though  V.,-g,„ia  protested  agaiust  the  ch.  r<.e  of  «  enul, 

woods  Xil". . :'.°  "'""7.  "'"^•''  ^^'--o"  -™te„!     ' 


i  ,* 


red. 


and  the  self-will  of  slaveliold 


ers  eoutirraed, 


20 


BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi.  ;  en.  i. 


was  more  than  a  counterjDoise  to  the  prerogative  of  the  British 
crown.     In  former  ages,  no  colony  had  enjoyed  a  happier  free- 
dom.    From  the  insun-ection  of  Bacon,  for  three  quarters  of  a 
century,  Virginia  possessed  uninterrupted  peace.     Tlie  strife 
witli  tlie  red  men  on  its  own  soil  was  ended;  tlie  French 
hesitated  to  iuA^ide  its  western  frontier ;  a  naval  foe  was  not 
attracted  tu  a  region  where  there  was  nothing  to  plunder  but 
the  frugal  stores  of  scattered  plantations.     In  such  scenes  the 
political  strifes  were  but  the  iitful  ebullitions  of  a  high  spirit 
whi(  li.  in  the  wantonness  of  indei^endence,  loved  to  tease  the 
governor ;  and,  again,  if  the  burgesses  expressed  loyalty,  they 
were  loyal  only  because  loyalty  was  their  mood.     Ileuce  the 
reports  to  England  were  contradictory.     "  The  inclinations  of 
the  country,"  wrote  Spotswood  in  1710,  "  are  rendered  mys- 
terious by  a  new  and  unaccountable  humor,  which  hath  obtained 
in  several  counties,  of  excluding  the  gentlemen  from  being 
burgesses,  and  choosing  only  persons  of  mean  figure  and  char- 
acter."    "This  govei-nment,"  so  he  reported  in  the  next  year, 
"  is  in  perfect  peace  and  tranquillity,  under  a  due  obedience  to 
the  royal  authority,  and  a  gentlemanly  conformity  to  the  church 
of  En-land."     The  letter  had  hardly  left  the  Chesapeake  be^ 
fore  he  found  himself  thwarted  hj  impracticable  burgesses; 
and,  dissolving  the  assembly,  he  fcai^  1  to  convene  another  till 
opinion  should  change.     But  Spotswood,  the  best  in  the  line  of 
Virginia  governors,  a  royalist,  a  high  churchman,  a  traveller, 
wrote  to  the  bishoj)  of  Loudon,  and  his  evidence  is  without 
suspicion  of  bias :  "  I  will  do  justice  to  this  country ;  I  have 
observed  here  less  swearing  and  prophaneness,  less  drunkenness 
and  debauchery,  less  UTicharitable  feuds  and  animosities,  and 
less  knaverys  and  villanj^s,  than  in  any  part  of  the  world,  where 
my  lot  has  been."     The  estimate  of  fifty  thousand  as  the  poi)u- 
lation  of  the  colony  on  the  accession  of  Queen  Anne  is  far  too 
low. 

Of  the  Roman  C'atholic  proprietary  of  Makyi.and,  the 
English  "Protestant"  revolution  sequestered  the  authority, 
U'hile  it  protected  the  fortunes.  Duriug  the  alisence  of  Lord 
Baltimore  from  his  province,  his  powers  had  been  delegated  to 
nine  deputies,  over  whom  William  Joseph  presided.  They 
provoked  opposition  by  demanding  of  tlie  assembly,  as  a  quali- 


'  III. ;  en.  I. 

lie  British 
ipier  free- 
irters  of  a 
riie  strife 
e  Frencli 
e  was  not 
mder  but 
cenes  the 
igh  spirit 
tease  the 
altj,  they 
[euce  the 
lations  of 
red  mys- 
.  obtained 
)ni  being 
and  char- 
lext  year, 
dienee  to 
le  church 
peake  be 
urgesscs ; 
other  till 
le  hne  of 
traveller, 
without 
;  I  have 
nkenness 
ities,  and 
Id,  where 
he  poi)u- 
is  far  too 

AND,  the 
uthority, 
of  Lord 
^gatcd  to 
L  They 
1^  a  quali- 


1089-1700.     MARYLAND  AFTER  THE  l^EVOLUTION.  £1 

iication  of  its  members,  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  proprietary. 
On  resistance  to  tlie  iUegal  demand,  the  house  was  prorogued- 
and,  oven  after  the  successful  invasion  of  England  became' 
known,  the  deputies  of  Lord  Balthnore  hesitated  to  proclaim 
the  new  sovereigns. 

The  delay  gave  birth,  in  April,  1689,  to  an  armed  associa- 
tion for  asserting  the  right  of  King  Wilham ;  and  the  deputies 
were  easily  driven  to  a  gamson  on  the  south  side  of  Patuxent 
river,  about  two  miles  above  its  mouth.  There,  on  tlie  iirst  of 
August,  they  capitulated,  obtaining  security  for  themselves,  and 
yielding  their  assent  to  the  exclusion  of  pa]usts  from  all' pro- 
vincial offices.  A  convention  of  the  associates  "  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  Protestant  religion,"  assumed  the  government  in 
the  names  of  Wilham  and  Mary,  and  in  a  congratulatory  ad- 
dress denounced  the  influence  of  Jesuits,  the  prevalence  of 
popish  idolatry,  the  connivance  by  the  government  at  murders 
of  Pi-otestants,  and  the  danger  from  plots  with  the  French  and 
Indians. 

The  privy  council,  after  a  debate  on  the  address,  advised 
the  forfeiture  of  the  charter  by  a  process  of  law;  but  King 
Wilham,  heedless  of  the  remonstrances  of  the  proprietary  who 
could  be  convicted  of  no  crime  but  his  creed,  and  impatient  of 
.ludicial  forms,  on  the  first  of  June,  1691,  by  his  own  power, 
constituted  iMaryland  a  royal  government.     The  arbitrary  de- 
cree was  sanctioned  by  a  legal  opinion  from  Holt;  and  the 
barons  of  Baltimore  were  superseded  for  a  generation      In 
1692,  Sir  Lionel  Copley  arrived  mth  a  royal  commission,  dis- 
solved the  convention,  assumed  the  government,  and  convened 
an  assembly.    Its  first  act  recognised  William  and  Mary;  but 
as  It  contained  a  clause  giving  validity  in  the  colony  to  the 
Magna  Cluuta  of  England,  it  was  not  accepted  by  the  cro^vn 
The  second  established  the  church  of  England  as*  tJie  religion 
ot  tlie  state,  to  be  supported  by  general  taxation.     In  1694 
Amuqiohs  became  the  seat  of  government.     The  support  of 
the  religion  of  the  state,  earnestly  advanced  by  Francis  Nich- 
Olson   who,  from  1694  to  1698,  was  governor  of  Maryland, 
and  by  the  patient,  disinterested,  but  too  exclusive  commis- 
sary, Ihomas  Bray,  l)ecame  the  settled  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment.    In  1606,  the  inviolable  claim  of  the  colony  to  En.Tlish 


I;' 


:    /' 


i                      rl 

•            1    ^ 

i 

•  ll 

22 


BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748. 


PART  III. ;  on.  I. 


nglits  and  liberties  was  engrafted  by  the  asseml)ly  on  the  act 
of  establishment;  and  this  was  disallowed;  for  the  solicitor- 
general,  Trevor,  "  knew  not  how  far  the  unacting  that  tlie  great 
charter  of  England  should  be  observed  in  all  points  would  be 
agreeable  to  the  constitution  of  the  colony,  or  consistent  with 
the  royal  prerogative."    In  1700,  the  presence  and  personal  vir- 
tues of  13ray,  who  saw  Christianity  only  in  the  English  church, 
obtained  by  unanimity  a  law  conunanding  confonnity  in  3very 
"place  of  public  worship."     Once  more  the  act  was  rejected  in 
England  from  regard  to  the  rights  of  Protestant  disseniere ;  and 
wlien,  m  1702,  the  Anglican  ritual  was  established  l)y  the  colo- 
nial legislature,  and  the  right  of  appointment  and  induction  to 
every  parish  was  secured  to  the  governor,  the  English  acts  of 
toleration  were  at  the  same  time  put  in  force.     Protestant  dis- 
sent was  safe;  for  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  English  mission- 
aries, the  remoteness  of  the  ecclesiastical  tribunals,  the  scandal 
ansmg  from  the  profligate  lives  and  impunity  in  crime  of 
many  ckvgymen,  the  zeal  of  the  numerju.  Quakers  for  inlel- 
'ectual  freedom,  and  the  activity  of  a  sort  of  "wandering  pre- 
tendei-s  from  New  England,"  deluding  even  "churchmen  by 
their  extemporaiy  i)rayers  and  preachments  "—all  united  as  a 
baiTier  against  persecution.    In  1704,  under  the  reign  of  Queen 
Anne,  the  Roman  Catholics  alone  were  given  up  to  Anglican 
intolerance.     Mass  might  not  be  said  publicly.     No  Cathohc 
priest  or  bishop  might  seek  to  make  prosely-tes.     No  Catholic 
might  teach  the  young.     If  the  wayward '  child  of  a  papist 
would  but  become  an  apostate,  the  hx.  m-ested  for  him  from 
his  jiarents  a  share  of  then-  property.     The  proprietary  was  dis- 
franchised for  his  creed.     Such  were  the  methods  adopted  "to 
prevent  the  growth  of  popery." 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  administration  of  Maryland 
resembled  that  of  Virginia.  Nicholson  and  Andros  were  gov- 
ernors in  each.  Lilce  Virginia,  Maryland  had  no  considerable 
town,  was  disturbed  l)ut  little  by  the  Indians,  and  less  by  the 
French.  Its  "people  were  well-natured  and  most  hospitable." 
Its  staple  was  tobacco ;  yet  hemp  and  Hax  were  raised,  and  both, 
like  tobacco,  were  sometimes  used  as  cun-ency.  In  170G,  in 
Somerset  and  Dorchester,  the  manufacture  of  linen,  and  even 
of  woollen  cloth,  was  attempted.     Industry  so  opposite  to  the 


1706-1716.     MARTLAND  AFTER  THE  EEVOHITION.  23 

eystom  of  the  m^antile  monopoly  needed  an  apology:  and 
the  a«.raby  pleaded,  in  exeuse  of  the  weavers,  that  thoj  Cre 
dnven  to  their  tasks  "l,y  absolute  neeessity."  Maryland  s^! 
passed  every  other  provinee  in  the  nun.ber  of  its  white  Z 
vants.  The  market  was  always  snpphed  with  them,  the  pZe 
varymg  f  .-o.n  two  ve  to  thirty  pounds.  By  its  position  ij^. 
tod  was  connoted  with  the  North ;  it  is  the  most  southern  S- 

W  ofl^:;  T'rT'r  *•;  "■'^"^  -i™'^  .>wardthed  . 
fence  of  New  York,  thus  forming,  from  the  Chesapeake  to 

M.aine  an  .mperfeet  eonfederaey.    The  union  w.os  increased  bv 

a  pubhc  post     Eight  times  in  the  year  Ictte,.  were  for  ,^ed 

from  the  Potomac  to  Philadelphia.    During  the  period  ofihe 

royal  goyemment  the  assembly  still  retamed  influence,  for  thev 

re  used  to  estabUsh  a  permanent  revenue.     They  encmr^eJ 

Mage,  exempted  provincial  vessels  from  a  tax  levied  on^t 

|sh  slnppmg,  recognised  the  collector  of  parliamenSry  Zf^ 

by  regulatmg  Ins  fees,  obstructed  the  importation  of  neg^sT 

Zv°r  C;  """/'.'"-P'!''  '»  P-™t  the  introdS'^ 
convicts.    To  show  tue>r  gratitude  for  the  blessings  which  thev 
enioyed  t,,,y  acknowledged  the  title  of  George  ir  They  Prom 
jsedahbraryand  a  free  school  to  every  parish.    The  popX 

l!!,r  i  '  "''  ""■"  '^  ''"'•  I"  WIO,  tlio  number  of 
bond  and  free  must  have  exceeded  thhty  housaud  vet  , 
bounty  tor  every  wolfs  head  continued  to  be  off  ed  Ihe  r  d 
to  he  caiutal  wei-e  marked  by  notches  on  trees;  and  wter-miUs 
st.Il  sohcted  legislative  encouragement.  Such  wl  Ma  viand 
as  a  royal  province.  In  1715,  th'e  infant  proprie^;  rt^^ 
Eulnd  "^-^"""""'"S  ""^  Catholic  cLchfor  tha^ 


,A 


•       \ 


I    ITi 


I 


24         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    part  in.;  oh.  ii. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  MIDDLE   STATES   AFTER  THE  KEVOLUTION. 

More  happy  than   Lord   Baltimore,   the  proprietary  of 
Pennsylvania  regained  his  rights  without  surrendering  liis 
faith.     Accepting  the  resignation  of  the  narrow  and  imperi- 
ous but   honest   Blackwell,  who,  at  the  period  of  tlie  revo- 
lution, acted  as  his   deputy,  the  Quaker  chief  desired  "to 
settle  the   government  in  a  condition  to  please  the  gener- 
ality," and  to  "let  them  be  the  choosers."    " Friends," such 
was  his  message,  "I  heartily  vnsli  you  all  well,  and  beseech 
God  to  guide  you  in  the  ways  of  righteousness  and  peace. 
I  have  thought  lit,  upon  my  further  stop  in  these  parts,  to 
throw  all  into  your  hands,  that  you  may  see  the  confidence 
I  have  in  you,  and  the  desire  I  have  to  give  you  all  pos- 
sible contentment."     The  council  of  his  province,  which  was 
at  that  time  elected   directly  by  the  people,  was,  in  June 
1690,  collectively  constituted  his  deputy.      Of  its  members, 
Thomas  Lloyd,  from  North  Wales,  an  Oxford  scholar,  was 
universally  beloved  as  a  bright  example  of  integrity.     The 
path  of  preferment  had  opened  to  him  in  England,  but  he 
chose  rather  the  peace  that  springs  from  "mental  felicity." 
This  Quaker  preacher,  the  oracle  of  "the  patriot  rustics" 
on   the    Delaware,   was  now,   by  the  free  suffrage  of   the 
council,  constituted  its  president.     But  the  lower  counties 
were  jealous  of  the  superior  weight  of  Pennsylvania ;   dis- 
putes respecting  ajipointments  to  office  grew  up ;  the  coun- 
cil divided;  protests  ensued;  the  members  from   the  terri- 
tories witlidrcw,  and  would  not  ])e  reconciled ;  so  that,  in 
April  1091,  with  the  reluctant  consent  of  AVilliam  Penn,  the 
"territories"  or  "lower  counties,"  now  known  as  the  state  of 


1CU1-1C93.    TENNSYLVANIA  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.       25 

Delaware,  l)ecame  for  two  years  a  government  by  themselves 
under  Markliam. 

Uncertainty  rested  on  the  institutions  of  the  provinces ;  an 
ai^parent  schism  among  the  Quakers  increased  the  trouble 
The  ministers  of  England,  fearing  the  easy  conquest  of  a  col- 
ony of  non-coml)atants  by  an  enemy,  Avere,  in  October  1091 
inclined  to  annex  Pennsylvania  to  some  province  under  the 
immediate  govcnunent  of  the  king.     In   this  design  they 
found  an  aUy.    Amid  the  applause  of  the  royalist  faction, 
George  Keith,  conciliating  other  Protestants  by  a  more  formal 
regard  for  the  Bible,  asserted  his  own  exclusive  adhesion  to 
the  principles  oi   I'Viends  by  pushing  the  doctrine  of  non- 
resistance  to  an  a1)solnte  extreme.     No  true  Quaker,  he  iiisist- 
ed,  can  act  in  public  life  either  as  a  law-giver  or  as  a  magis- 
trate.    The  mferences  were  plain ;  if  Quakers  could  not  be 
magistrates  in  a  Qnaker  community,  Xing  William  must  send 
churchmen  to  govern  them.     Conforming  his  conduct  to  his 
opinion,  Jveith  defied  the  magistracy  of  Pennsylvania.     The 
grand  jury  found  him  guilty  of  a  breach  of  the  laws;  an  in- 
dictment, trial,  and  conviction  followed.     The  punishment 
awarded  was  the  payment  of  five  ])ounds;  yet,  as  his  offence 
was  in  Its  nature  a  contempt  of  court,  the  scrupulous  Quakers 
hesitating  to  punish  imperthience  lest  it  might  seem  the  pun- 
ishment of  opinicn,  forgave  the  fine.     Meantime,  the  envious 
world  vexed  at  the  society  which  it  could  neither  corrupt  nor 
mtimidato,  set  up  the  cry  that  its  members  were  turned  perse- 
cutors;  and  quoted  the  blunt  expre.<  "ons  of  indignation  ut- 
tered by  tlio  magistrates  as  jji-oofs  of  intolerance.     But  the 
devices  of  the  apostate  had  only  transient  interest ;  Keith  was 
soon  left  without  a  faction,  and  made  a  true  exposition  of  his 
part  m  the  strife  by  accepting  an  Anglican  benefice. 

_  Ihe  distuH,ance  by  Keith,  creating  questions  as  to  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  confirmed  the  disposition  of  the  Eng- 
lish govennnent  to  subject  Pemisylvania  to  a  royal  commil 
Bion;  and,  „i  Apnl  1,;93,  Benjamin  Fletcher,  appointed  gov- 
ernor by  Wdham  and  Mary,  once  more  united  Delaware  to 
Pennsylvama  "  Some,  who  held  commissions  from  the  pro- 
pnetor,  withdrew  at  the  publishing  of  their  majesties'  commis- 


others  refused  to  act  under  that 


power. 


vi'i  « 


n 


i  i'  -i 


I 


26 


BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.    part  hi.  ;  on.  ii. 


III! 


When  the  house  of  representatives  assembled  in  May,  it 
was  the  object  of  Fletcher  to  gain  snpi^lies ;  of  the  legislators 
to  maintain  thoir  privileges.  The  laws  founded  on  the  charter 
of  Penn  they  declared  to  be  "  yet  in  force ;  and  desired  the 
same  might  be  confirmed  to  them  as  their  right  and  liberties." 
"If  the  laws,"  answered  Fletcher,  "made  by  virtue  of  Mr. 
Pemi's  charter,  be  of  force  to  you,  and  can  be  brought  into 
competition  with  the  great  seal  which  commands  me  hither,  I 
have  no  business  here;"  and  he  ]ri^.,'.ded  the  royal  prerogative 
as  inalienable.  "The  grant  of  Kh^f  Charles,"' rejilied  Joseph 
Growdon,  the  speaker,  "  is  itself  unuer  the  great  seal.  Is  that 
charter  in  a  lawful  way  at  an  end  ? " 

To  reconcile  the  difference,  Fletcher  proposed  to  re-enact 
the  greater  num])er  of  the  foi-mer  laws.  "  We  are  but  poor 
men,"  said  John  White,  "  and  of  inferior  degree,  and  rein-esent 
the  i)eople.  This  is  our  difficulty ;  we  durst  not  begin  to  pass 
one  bill  to  be  enacted  of  oiu-  former  laws,  least  by  soe  doing 
we  declare  the  rest  void." 

The  royalists  next  started  a  technical  objection:  the  old 
laws  are  invalid  because  they  do  not  bear  the  gi-eat  seal  of  the 
proprietary.  "  We  know  the  laws  to  be  our  laws,"  it  was  an- 
swered ;  "  and  we  are  in  the  enjoyment  of  them ;  the  sealing 
does  not  make  the  law,  but  the  consent  of  governor,  council, 
and  assembly." 

The  same  spirit  pervaded  the  session ;  and  the  grant  of  a 
penny  in  the  pound,  which,  it  was  promised,  "  should  not  be 
dipt  in  blood,"  was  connected  with  a  capitulation  recognising 
the  legislative  rights  of  the  representatives.  A  pubUc  mani- 
festo, signed  by  all  the  members  from  Pennsylvania,  declared 
it  to  be  "  the  right  of  the  assembly  that,  before  any  bill  for 
supplies  be  presented,  aggrievances  ought  to  be  redressed." 
"My  door  was  never  shut,"  said  Fletcher  on  parting;  "but  it 
was  avoided,  as  if  it  were  treason  for  the  speaker,  or  any  other 
representative,  to  be  seen  in  my  company  during  your  ses- 


sions. 


5J 


One  permanent  change  in  the  constitution  was  the  frait 
of  this  administration :  tlie  house  originated  its  bills,  and 
retained  the  right  ever  after.  Fletcher  would  gladly  have 
changed    the    law  for   "yearlie    delegates;"  for  "where," 


1094-1700.    PENiVSYLVANIA  AFTER  TEE  REVOLUTION.       27 

asked  the  royalist,  "is  the  hurt,  if  a  good  assemblie  should 
be  coiitiiuied  from  one  year  to  another?"    Jhit  the  i)eople 
saved  tlieir  privilege  l)y  electing  an  assembly  of  which  Fletcli 
er  could  "give  no  good  character  at  Whitehall,"  and  which 
he  could  have  no  wish  to  continue. 

The  assembly  of  1094  was  still  more  impracticable,  havinrj 
lor  Its  speaker  David  Lloyd,  the  keenest  discoverer  of  griev- 
ances, and  the  most  persevenng  of  political  scolds.    "If  you 
will  not  hry  money  to  make  M'ar,"  such  was  the  governor's 
message,  in  May,  "yet  I  hope  you  will  not  refuse  to  feed  the 
hungrie  and  clothe  the  naked."     The  assembly  was  willino-  to 
givo  alms  to  the  suiferers  round  Albany ;  but  it  claimed^the 
right  o±  making  specific  appropriations,  and  of  collecting  and 
disbursing  the  money  by  officers  of  its  own   appointment. 
The  demand  was  rejected  as  an  infringement  on  the  roval 
prerogative;  and,  after  a  fortnight's  altercation,  the  assembly 

Z^X^^t        ""  *''  ^"""  ""'  ^  ^^^^^  ^-™  ^^ 

Thrice,  within  two  years  after  the  revolution,  had  William 
Penn  been  arrested  and  brought  before  court,  and  thrice  he  had 
been  openly  set  free.  In  1090,  he  prepared  to  embark  once 
more  for  America;  emigrants  crowded  round  him;  a  con- 
voy was  granted ;  the  fleet  was  ahnost  ready  to  sai ,  when 
on  lus  return  from  the  funeral  of  George  Fox,  messenS 
were  sent  to  apprehend  him.  To  avoid  a  Lrth  'arn^S 
he  went  into  retirement.    Locke  would  have  interJed  foi- 

^^tice  The  delay  competed  the  wreck  of  his  fortunes;  the 
ui  e  of  Ins  youth  died;  his  eldest  son  was  of  a  frail  consti- 
tution;  Jesuit,  papist,  and  traitor  were  the  calumnies  heaped 
ui^n  him  by  the  world;  yet  he  preserved  his  serenity,  and, 
true  to    us  principles,  in  a  season  of  passionate  and  abnos 

n"  ""'  ^"'"^'^'  '  ^'^^  '''  «  P--  -o;g  the 

Among  the  many  in  England  whom  Penn  ^    .  benefited 
gratitude  was  not  extinct.     On  the  restoration  of  the  wS 
to  power,  Rochester,  wlio,  under  James  II.,  had  given  up 
office  rather    ban  profess  Romanism,  the  lek  distinguish  d 
Eanelagh,  and  Henry,  the  brother  of  Algernon  Sidney,  for- 


i  I 


1 

i 

I  : 

, 

;  -ill- 

1 

I 


28         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     part  hi.  ;  on.  ii. 

merly  the  correspondent  of  the  prince  of  Orange,  interceded 
for  the  restoration  of  the  proprietary  of  Pennsylvania.  "He  is 
rny  old  acquaintance,"  answered  William;  "he  may  follow  his 
business  as  freely  as  ever;  I  have  nothing  to  say  against  hhn." 
Appearing  before  the  king  in  council,  his  innocence  was  estab- 
lished ;  and,  in  August  1694,  the  patent  for  his  restoration 
passed  the  seals. 

The  pressure  of  poverty  delayed  the  return  of  the  proprie- 
tary to  the  banks  of  the  Delaware;  and  in  1G95  Markham 
was  invested  with  the  executive  power.  The  members  of  the 
assembly  which  he  convened  in  September,  anxious  for  pohti- 
cal  hberties  which  the  recent  changes  had  threatened  to  de- 
stroy, assumed  the  power  of  fundamental  legislation,  and 
framed  a  democratic  constitution.  They  would  have  "  their 
piivileges  granted  before  they  would  give  any  monie." 
Doubtful  of  the  extent  of  his  authority,  Markham  dissolved 
the  assembly. 

The  legislatm-e  of  October  1696,  by  its  own  authority, 
subject  only  to  the  assent  of  the  prop-'  ;ary,  estabhshed  a 
purely  democratic  government.  The  governor  was  but  chair- 
man of  the  council.  The  council,  the  assembly,  each  vr^i 
chosen  by  the  people.  The  time  of  election,  the  time  of  as- 
sembling, the  period  of  office,  were  placed  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  executive.  The  judiciary  depended  on  the  legislature. 
The  people  constituted  themselves  the  fountain  of  honor  and  of 
power.  When,  in  May  1697,  the  next  assembly  came  together, 
Markham  could  say  to  them :  "  You  are  met,  not  by  virtue  of 
any  writ  of  mine,  but  of  a  law  made  by  yourselves."  The 
people  niled ;  and,  after  years  of  strife,  all  went  happily. 

In  November  1699,  William  Penn  was  once  more  with  his 
colony.  The  commonwealth  had  ripened  into  self-reliance. 
Passing  over  all  intermediate  changes,  he  upheld  the  validity 
of  the  frame  of  government  agreed  upon  between  himself 
and  the  provincial  legislature;  but  proposed,  by  mutual  agree- 
ment, "to  keep  what's  good  in  it,  to  lay  aside  what  is  burden- 
some, and  to  add  what  may  best  suit  the  common  good." 
On  the  seventh  of  June  1700,  the  old  constitution  was  sur- 
rendered, Avith  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  assembly  and 
council.     Yet  the  counties  or  Delaware  dreaded  the  loss  of 


1700-1710.    PENNSYLVANIA  AFTER  THE  KEVOLUTION.       29 

their  independence  by  a  union  with  the  extending  population 
of  I  ennsylvania.  Besides,  the  authonty  of  Wilh-am  Penn 
m  the  hirger  state  alone  had  the  sanction  of  a  royal  charter. 
^  Ihe  proprietary  endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  remove  the 
jealousy  with  winch  his  provinces  were  regarded  in  England 
Iheir  legislature  readily  passed  laws  against  piracy  and  illicit 
trade ;  but  refused  their  quota  for  the  defence  of  New  York 

In  regard  to  the  negroes,  Penn  attempted  to  legislate  not 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  but  for  the  sanctity  of  marriage 
among  the  slaves,  and  for  their  personal  safety.  The  latter 
object  was  eifected ;  the  former,  which  would  have  been  the 
forenmner  of  family  life  and  of  freedom,  was  defeated.  By 
his  will,  made  in  America,  Penn  liberated  his  own  slaves 

Ireaties  of  peace  were  renewed  with  the  men  of  the  wil- 
derness from  the  Potomac  to  Oswego,  and  tho  trade  with  them 
was  subjected  to  regiilations ;  but  they  could  not  be  won  to  the 
faith  or  the  habits  of  civilized  life. 

These  measures  were  adopted  amid  the  fruitless   wrang- 
bngs  between  the  delegates  from  Delaware  and  those  from 
Pennsylvania.     Soon  after,  the  news  was  received  that  the 
Lng  ish  pariiament  was  about  to  render  all  their  strides  and 
al    their  hopes  nugatory  by  the  general  abrogation  of  every 
colomal  charter.     An  assembly  wa.  summoned  instantly;  and 
when,  in  September  1701,  it  came  together,  the  proprietary 
eager  to  return  to  England  to  defend  the  common  rights  of 
himself  and  his  province,  urged  the  perfecting  of  their  frame 
of  govermnent.     "Since  all  men  are  mortal,"  such  was  his 
weighty  message,  "think  of  some  suitable  expedient  and  pro- 
vision for  your  safety,  as  well  in  your  privileges  as  property 
and  you  .viU  hnd  me  ready  to  comply  .nth  whatever  may  ren: 
der  us  happy  by  a  nearer  union  of  our  interests.    Review  again 
your  laws;  propose  new  ones,  that  may  better  your  circum- 
stances ;  and  what  you  do,  do  it  quickly.     Unanimity  and  de- 
patch  may  contnbute  to  the  disappointment  of  those  that  too 
long  have  sought  the  rain  of  ouk  yotoo  countky  » 

common  'ir^"^  "^  '\"  f™^^^'  ™P^"^^^  ^y  '^  i^tere^t 
eno  3       "7^  "^"  '^  '^'^  constituents,  were  disposed  to 

ma  r    "  '^''P^\^Y^^^^''^  ^^^^"-     If -me  of  their  de- 
mands were   resisted,  he   readily  yielded   everything  which 


1 

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30         BlilTISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1743.     pakt  hi.  ;  en.  i\. 

could  he  claimed,  even  bj  inference,  from  his  promises,  or 
could  he  expected  from  liis  liberality ;  making  his  interests  of 
less  consideration  than  the  satisfaction  of  his  jieoplo ;  rather 
remitting  than  rigorously  exacting  his  revenues. 

Of  political  ])rivi]ege8,  he  conceded  all  that  was  desired. 
The  council,  henceforward  to  be  appointed  by  the  proprietary, 
became  a  branch  of  the  executive  goveniment ;  the  assembly 
assumed  to  itself  the  right  of  originating  every  act  of  legisla- 
tion, subject  only  to  the  assent  of  the  governor.  Elections  to 
the  assemb)y  were  annual ;  the  time  of  its  election  and  the 
time  of  its  session  were  fixed ;  it  was  to  sit  upon  its  own  ad- 
journments. Sheriffs  and  coroners  were  nominated  by  the 
people ;  no  questions  of  property  could  come  before  the  gov- 
ernor and  council ;  the  judiciary  was  left  to  the  discretion  of 
the  legislature.  Religious  liberty  was  established,  and  every 
])ublic  emplojTnent  was  open  to  every  man  professing  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ. 

On  returning  to  America,  William  Penn  had  designed  to 
remain  for  life,  and  make  a  home  for  his  posterity  in  the  New 
World.  But  his  work  was  done.  Having  given  self-govern- 
ment to  his  provinces,  no  strifes  remaining  but  strifes  about 
property,  happily  for  himself,  happily  for  his  people,  happily 
for  posterity,  he  returned  from  the  "young  countrie"  of  his 
affections  to  the  country  of  his  birth. 

For  the  separation  of  the  territories,  contingent  provision 
had  been  made  by  the  proprietary.  In  1702,  T^ennsylvania 
convened  its  legislature  apart,  and  the  two  colonics  were  never 
again  united.  The  lower  coimties  became  almost  an  indepen- 
dent republic ;  for,  as  they  were  not  included  in  the  charter, 
the  authority  of  the  rietary  over  them  was  by  sufferance 

only,  and  the  execi  j  power  intrasted  to  the  governor  of 
Pennsylvania  was  !  .o  feeble  to  restrain  the  power  of  their 
people.  The  legislature,  the  tribunals,  the  subordinate  execu- 
tive offices  of  Delaware  knew  little  of  external  control. 

The  nexc  years  in  Pennsylvania  exhibit  constant  collisions 
between  the  proprietary,  as  owner  of  the  unsold  public  lands, 
and  a  people  eager  to  enlarge  their  freeholds.  The  integrity 
of  the  mildly  aristocratic  James  Logan,  to  whose  judicious  care 
the  proprietary  estates  were  intrusted,  remains  unsuUied  by  the 


1088-1099.      NEW  JERSEY  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.  31 

accusations  or  impeachments  of  the  assembly.     Tlio  end  of 
government  wius  declared  to  be  the  happiness  of  the  people 
and  from  this  maxim  the  duties  of  tlie  governor  were  de- 
rived.   But  the  organization  of  the  judiciary  was  the  sub- 
ject of  longest  controversy.     They  were  not  willing,  even  in 
the  highest  courts,  to  have  English  lawyers  for  judges.    "Men 
skilled  in  the  law,  of  good  integrity,  are  very  desirable,"  said 
tliey  m  17()(i;  "yet  we  incline  to  be  content  with  the  best  men 
the  colony  aifords."     The  rustic  legislators  insisted  on  their 
right  to  nistitute  the  judiciary,  fix  the  rules  of  court,  define 
judicial  power  with  prccuion,  and  by  request  displace  judges 
for  misbehavior.     The  courts  obtained  no  permanent  organiza- 
tion till  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover  in  1 714     Twice 
the  province  had  almost  become  a  royal  one-once  by  act  of 
parliament,  and  once  by  treaty.     But,  in  England,  a  real  re- 
gard for  the  sacrifices  and  the  virtues  of  William  Penn  gained 
him  friends  among  English  statesmen ;  and  the  malice  of  pes- 
tilent English  ofiicials,  of  Quarry  and  others  employed  in 
enforcing  the  revenue  laws,  valuing  a  colony  only  by  the  har- 
vest 1  toflered  of  cinohiments,  and  ever  ready  to  appeal  selnsli- 
y  to  the  crown,  the  church,  or  English  trade,  was  never  able 
to  overthrow  his  influence,     llis  poverty,  consequent  on  his 
disinterested  la  oors,  created  a  willingness  to  surrender  his  prov- 
ince to  the  crown;  but  he  insisted  on  preserving  the  colonial 
hberties,  and  the  crown  hardly  cared  to  buy  a  democracy. 
_      The  conflicts  of  the  assembly  with  its  proprietary  did  but 
mvigoratethe  spirit  of  diligence.     In  a  country  where  all  leg- 
islation originated  exclusively  from  the  people;  where  there 
was  perfect  freedom  of  opinion;  no  established  church;  no 
diflerence  of  rank;  and  a  refuge  opened  for  men  of  e^ery 
c  ime,  language,  and  ereed-in  a  comitry  without  army,  or 
mihtia,  or  forts  or  an  armed  police,  and  with  no  sheriffs  but 
^lose  elected  "by  the  rabble,"  the  spectacle  was  given  of  the 
most  orderly  and  most  prospered  land.     Never  had  a  country 
mcreased  so  rapidly  in  wealth  and  numbers  as  Pennsylvania, 
m  jnkw  Jeksev,  had  the  proprietaiy  power  been  vested  in 
le  people  or  reserved  to  one  man,  it  might  have  survived,  but 

lain    ntr         7^"^^'"^^^'""  "^  ^'"•^^'  ''^''-  ''  ^  ^^^^^ad 
gam,  and  not  the  public  welfare,  for  their  end.     In  April 


^m 


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32  HUITIHIl  AMEUICA  FUOM  1(588  TO  1748.     pahtiii.;  ou.it 

1688,  "  tlio  ])r(>i->rietoi'fl  of  East  Now  Jersey  liiul  surreiulered 
their  pretended  rijjjlit  of  govenimeiit,"  and  the  surrender  had 
been  accepted.  In  October  of  the  siune  yeai",  the  council  of 
tlio  i)r(tprieturie8  of  West  Now  Jersey  "nted  to  tlie  secretary- 
general  for  the  dominion  of  New  Enj^^hind  the  custody  of  "all 
records  relating,'  to  government."  Tims  the  wIkjIo  province 
fell,  with  New  Vork  and  New  England,  under  the  government 
of  Andros.  At  the  revolution,  therefore,  the  sovereignty  over 
Now  Jersey  had  reverted  to  the  crown ;  and  the  legal  maxim, 
soon  proinulgated  by  the  board  of  trade,  that  the  domains  of 
the  jM-oprietaries  might  be  bought  and  sold,  but  not  their  exec- 
utive power,  weakened  their  attempts  at  the  recovery  of  au- 
thority, and  0(Misigned  tlie  colony  to  a  temporary  anarchy. 

A  community  of  husbandmen  may  be  safe  for  a  short  sea- 
son with  little  government.  For  twelve  years,  the  province 
was  not  in  a  settled  condition.  From  June,  1(589,  to  August, 
1092,  East  New  Jersey  had  apparently  no  superintending  ad- 
ministration, being,  in  time  of  war,  destitute  of  military  officers 
as  well  as  of  magistrates  with  royal  or  ])roprietary  ccjnunissions. 
They  were  protected  by  their  neighbors  from  external  attacks  ; 
and  there  is  no  reason  to  infer  that  the  several  towns  failed  to 
exercise  regulating  powers  within  their  respective  limits.  After- 
Avard  commissions  were  issued  by  two  sets  of  proprietor,  of 
which  each  had  its  adherents ;  while  a  third  party,  swayed  by 
disgust  at  the  confusion  and  by  disputes  about  land  titles,  re- 
jected the  proprietaries  altogether.  Over  the  western  moiety, 
Daniel  Coxe,  as  largest  owner  of  the  domain,  in  1089,  claimed 
exclusive  pro])rietary  powers;  but  the  people  disallowed  Lis 
claim,  rejecting  his  deputy  imder  tlie  bad  name  of  a  Jacobite. 
In  1091,  Coxe  conveyed  such  authority  as  he  had  to  the  West 
Jei-sey  Society ;  and  hi  1092,  Andrew  Hamilton  was  accepted 
as  governor  under  their  couunission.  This  rule,  with  a  short 
interruption  in  1098,  continued  through  the  reign  of  Wilham. 
But  the  law  officers  of  the  crown,  in  109-1,  questioned  it  even 
as  a  temporary  settlement ;  the  lords  of  trade  claimed  all  New 
Jersey  as  a  royal  province,  and  in  1099,  proposed  a  decision  of 
the  question  by  "a  trial  in  "Westminster  Hall  on  a  feigned 
issue."  The  proprietaries,  threatened  ^.  ith  the  ultimate  inter- 
ference of  parliament  in  provinces  "  where,"  it  was  said,  "  no 


JM. 


lOU'J-1702.      NEW  JERSEY   AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.  33 

regular  ^rovenuiu-nt  had  ever  heen  estahlihliiMl."  reHolvud  to  re- 
sign their  |.retaKsi,.ns.  In  tlioir  iiugotiatioiis  with  thu  crown 
they  wished  to  i.isiHt  that  there  Hlioukl  he  a  triennial  aHsemhly  • 
hut  Kmg  William,  though  he  had  against  his  inclination  ap-' 
proved  triennial  parliaments  for  England,  would  never  consent 
to  them  m  the  plantations. 

In  1702,  the  first  year  of  Qneen  Anne,  the  sr;Tender  took 
place  hefore  the  privy  council.  The  domain,  ceasin.r  to  he 
connected  with  proprietary  powers,  was,  under  the  rules  of  pri- 
vate right,  eontirnied  to  its  possessoi-s,  and  the  decision  haa 
never  heen  disiurhed. 

_  The  surrender  of  "the  pretended  "  rights  to  govr     merit 
being  completed,  the  two  Jerseys  were  united  in  one  p        u-e  • 
and  the  government  was  conferred  on  Edward  Hyti.    ..<,rd 
Corid,ur^-,  who,  like  Qneen  Anne,  was  the  grandchild  of  Clar- 
endon,    lietain.ng  its  separate  legislature,  the  ],rovince  had  for 
the  next  thirty-s.x  years  the  same  governors  as  New  York      It 
never  again  ohtained  a  charter :  the  royal  commission  of  April 
l.Ow,  and  the  royal  instructions  to  Lord  Cornbury,  constituted 
10  form  ot  ,ts  admim'stration.     To  the  governor  .^  point      bv 
the  crown  belonged  the  power  of  legiltion,  witlVconstu  of 
the  ropl  council  and  the  representatives  of  tne  i)eople     A 

cit     TlIT  ^"^"^^'  'It;'^'^*'^"'  ^''''^'  ^1-  elictiVorat 
tZuT-^uJ^T  Tf  -"-"M-orogue,  or  dissolve  the 

.  vo  o  f     %i  '''''  ^vx>re  subject  to  his  innnediate  veto  and 

a  vd^^.  rom  the  crown,  wliich  might  I>e  exercised  at  any  time 
With  the  consent  of  his  council  he  instituted  courts  of  law  ^1 
JWon.ed  their  office..     The  people  took  no  port  i^lti:,^  ! 

plil  CP'       '^'"^^  f  '^'"^^"^^^  ''"''  fe--ted  to  all  but 
pa  L  s,  bn    favoi  was  invoked  for  the  church  of  England  of 

rnvstin!  t  """'  '""'^^T  ^-^P-^^--  -ade  impossible  ^ 
mvestmg  the  governor  with  the  right  of  presentatiin  to  ben^- 

appeallfthl^'^I'  '^'"  T'™''  ^^  ^""^^^'  ^^^'-'"-^  ^  ^-^t  of 

*  Greattt    ^     -^  ""T'^    ^''''''''"^    "^^''"a^^'    jurisdiction 
xreat  niconvemence,"  said  Qneen  Anne,  "may  arise  by  the 
liberty  of  printing  m  oiu-  province"  of  New  Jersey ;  and  the  ! 


I 
J 

m 


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i 

f 

:\ 

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,i 

34         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    part  hi.  ;  cii.  n. 

fore  no  printing-j^ress  might  bo  kept,  "  no  book,  pamphlet,  or 
otlier  matters  whatsoev^er,  might  be  printed  without  a  license." 
In  subservience  to  English  policy,  especial  countenance  of  the 
traffic  "in  merchantable  negroes"  was  earnestly  enjoined.  The 
courts,  the  press,  the  executive,  became  dependent  on  the 
crown ;  the  interests  of  free  labor  were  sacrificed  to  the  cupid- 
ity of  the  Eoyal  African  company. 

One  method  of  influence  remained  to  the  people  of  New 
Jersey.  The  assembly  must  fix  the  amount  of  its  grants  to  the 
governor.  The  queen  did  not  venture  to  prescribe,  or  to  invite 
parliament  to  prescribe,  a  salary ;  still  less,  herself  to  concede  it 
from  colonial  resources.  Urgent  that  all  appropriations  should 
be  made  directly  for  the  use  of  the  crown,  to  be  audited  by  her 
officers,  she  wished  a  fixed  revenue  to  be  settled ;  but  the  colo- 
nial d  "berations  were  respected,  and  the  assembly,  in  its  votes 
of  supplies  often  insisting  on  an  auditor  of  its  own,  never  estab- 
lished a  permanent  revenue. 

The  freemen  of  the  colony  were  soon  conscious  of  the  dimi- 
nution of  their  liberties.  For  absolute  religious  freedom,  they 
obtained  only  toleration ;  for  courts  resting  on  enactments  of 
their  own  representatives,  they  had  courts  instituted  by  royal 
ordinances.  Moved  by  their  love  of  freedom  and  the  sense  of 
having  suffered  a  wrong,  by  degrees  they  claimed  to  hold  their 
former  piivileges  as  an  indefeasible  possession  assured  to  them 
by  an  inviolable  compact.  The  surrender  of  the  charter  could 
terminate  the  authority  of  the  proprietaries,  but  not  impair  the 
political  rights  of  which  the  people  were  in  possession  l)y  their 
irrevocable  grant.  Inured  to  self-reliance,  the  Quakers  of  West 
New  Jersey  and  the  Puritans  of  East  New  Jei-sey  cordially 
joined  in  resisting  encroaclmaents  on  their  rights. 

In  New  York,  Leisler,  who  had  assumed  power  at  the  out- 
break in  1(180,  rested  for  support  upon  the  less  educated  classes 
of  the  Dutch.  English  dissentei-s  were  not  heartily  his  friends. 
The  large  Dutch  landholders,  many  of  the  Englisli  merchants, 
the  friends  to  the  Anglican  church,  the  cal)al  that  had  grown 
up  round  the  royal  governors,  were  his  wary  and  unrelenting 
opponents.  But  his  greatest  weakness  was  in  himself.  He  was 
too  restless  to  obey  and  too  passionate  to  commaTui. 

The  Protestant  insurgents  had,  innnediately  after  the  up- 


1689-1691.      NEW   YORK  AFTER   THE   REVOLUTION.  35 

rising  in  New  England,  taken  possession  of  the  fort  in  New 
York.  A  few  companies  of  .nilitia  sided  with  Leisler  openly 
and  nearly  hve  hundred  men  joined  him  in  arms.  Their  Lie 
declaration  of  the  third  of  June  set  forth  their  pun.ose  "As 
soon  as  the  be.^er  of  orders  from  the  prince  of  Orange  sh7l 
have  let  us  see  his  power,  then,  without  delay,  we  do  intend  to 
obey  not  the  orders  only,  but  also  the  bearer  thereof  » 

A  committee  of  safety  of  ten  assumed  the  task  of  reor^an- 
:zing  the  government,  and  Jacob  Leisler  received  their  com 
mission  ro  command  the  fort  of  Kew  York.  Of  this  1  e 
gamed  possession  without  a  struggle.  An  address  to  Kin' 
Wi  ham  was  fonvarded,  and  a  letter  from  Leisler  was  received 
by  that  prmce  without  rebuke.     Li  July,  Nicholson  the  dep 

repeated,  that  the  people   of  New  York  were  a  conquered 
people,  without  claim  to  the  rights  of  Englishmen    tin     he 
pnnce  might  lawfully  govern  them  by  his^wi^ will     nd  ap 
pom   what  laws  he  pleased.     The  dread  of  this  doctrtn    sunk 
deeply  into  the  public  mind,   and  afterward  attracted   the 
notice  of  the  assemblies  of  New  York.    Li  August,  duX  to 
period  of  disorder,  the  committee  of  safety  reLembled,^anr 
.by  no  authority  but  their  own,  constituted  Leisler  the  tlZo. 
•ary  governor  of  the  province.     The  appointment  was  hiteful 
to  those  who  had  been  ''the  principal  men"  of  New  Yo  k 
They  looked  upon  Leisler  as  "  an  insolent  alien,"  and  his  Z'- 

the  col'!i"'V^'.  "*:r  "^  '^''  '^*^'  ^'y'^'^^  '-^"^1  <^tters  of 
e  counci,  after  fruitless  opposition,  retired  to  Albany,  where 

the  magistrates  in  convention  proclaimed  their  allegLce  to 
William  and  Maiy,  and  their  resolution  to  disregard  the  au- 
thority of  leisler.  When  Milbonie,  the  son-in-lat  of  L  sle 
ftrst  came  to  demand  the  fort,  he  was  successfully  reS' 
rn  December,  letters  were  received  addressed  to  Nicholln* 
or,  m  his  absence,  to  "such  as,  for  the  time  being,  take  cTe 
^or  preserving  the  peace  and  administering  the  law^' in  nI 
ilr\  f^«^™»^«^^on  to  Nicholson  accompanied  them-  but 

It)  had  rec^uved  the  royal  sanction.     In  January,  IGOO,  a  war- 


'   ft 

.I* 


n 


(••liN 


86 


BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     part  hi.  ;  en.  ii. 


rant  was  issued  for  tlie  apprehension  of  Bayard ;  and  Albany, 
in  the  spring,  teri'ilied  by  an  Indian  invasion,  and  troubled  by 
domestic  factions,  yielded  to  Milborae.  Amid  distress  and 
confusion,  a  house  of  representatives  was  convened,  and  the 
governiiient  constituted  by  the  popular  act.  To  invade  and 
conquer  Canada  was  the  niling  passion  of  the  northern  colo- 
nies ;  but  the  sunnner  was  lost  in  fruitless  preparations,  and 
closed  in  strife. 

In  January  of  1691,  the  Beaver  arrived  in  New  York 
harbor  with  Ingoldsby,  who  bore  a  commission  as  captain. 
Leisler  offered  him  (quarters  in  the  city  :  "  Possession  of  his 
majesty's  fort  is  what  I  demand,"  replied  Ingoldsby,  and  he 
issued  a  proclamation  requiring  submission.  The  aristocratic 
party  obtained  as  a  leader  one  who  held  a  connnission  from 
the  new  sovereign.  Leisler,  confonning  to  the  original  agree- 
ment made  with  his  fellow-insurgents,  replied  that  Ingoldsby 
had  produced  no  order  from  the  king,  or  from  Sloughter, 
Avho,  it  was  known,  liad  received  a  commission  as  governor, 
and,  promising  him  aid  as  a  military  officer,  refused  to  surren- 
der the  fort.  In  February,  the  troops,  as  they  landed,  were 
received  witli  all  courtesy ;  yet  passions  ran  high,  and  a  shot 
even  was  fired  at  them.  The  outrage  was  severely  reproved 
by  Leisler,  who,  amid  proclamations  and  counter-proclama- 
tions, promised  obedience  to  Sloughter  on  his  arrival. 

When  in  an  evening  of  March  the  profligate,  needy,  and 
naiTow-minded  adventurer,  who  held  the  royal  connnission, 
arrived  in  New  York,  Leisler  instantly  sent  messengers  to  re- 
ceive his  orders.  The  messengers  were  detained.  Next  nu)rn- 
ing  he  asked  by  letter,  to  whom  he  should  surrender  the  fort. 
The  letter  was  unheeded ;  and  Sloughter,  giving  him  no  notice, 
commanded  Ingoldsby  "  to  aiTest  him  and  the  persons  called 
his  council." 

The  prisoners,  eight  in  number,  were  promptly  arraigned 
before  a  court  constituted  for  the  purpose  by  an  ordinance, 
and  having  inveterate  royalists  as  judges.  Six  of  the  inferior 
insurgents  made  their  defence,  were  convicted  of  high  treason, 
and  were  reprieved.  Leisler  and  Milborne  denied  to  the  gov- 
ernor the  power  to  institute  a  tribunal  for  judging  his  prede- 
cessor, and  they  ai>pealed  to  the  king.     On  their  refusal  to 


1091-1692.      NEW  YORK  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.  37 

plead,  they  were  condemned  of  high  treason  as  mutes  and 
sentenced  to  death,  Joseph  Dudley,  of  New  England,' now 
chief  justice  of  New  York,  giving  the  opinion  that  Leisler 
Jiad  had  no  legal  authority  whatever. 

Meantime,  the  assembly,  for  which  warrants  had  been  is- 
sued on  the  day  of  Leisler's  arrest,  came  together  in  April 
In  Its  cliaracter  it  was  tliorougldy  royalist,  establishing  a  reve- 
nue, and  placmg  it  in  the  hands  of  the  receiver-general,  at  the 
mercy  of  the  governoi-'s  warrant.     It  passed  several  resolves 
agamst  Leisler,  especially  declaring  his  eonduc     t  the  fort  an 
act  of  rebellion.     "Certainly  never  greater  viJains  lived," 
wrote  Sloughter,  on  the  seventh  of  May;  but  he  "resolved  to 
wait  for  the  royal  i,leasure  if  by  any  other  means  than  hang- 
ing he  could  keep  the  country  quiet."    Yet,  on  the  fourteenth, 
he  assented  to  the  vote  of  the  council,  that  Leisler  and  Mil- 
borne  should  be  executed.     On  the  fifteenth,  "the  house  did 
approve  of  what  his  excellency  and  council  had  done  " 

The  next  day,  amid  a  drenching  rain,  Leisler,  parting  from 
his  wife  Ahce  and  his  numerous  family,  was,  with  his  son-in- 
law,  Mdborne,  led  to  the  gallows.     Both  acknowledged  the 
errors  which  they  had  committed  "through  ignorance  and 
jea  ous  fear,  through  rashness  and  passion,  through  misinfor- 
mation and  misconstruction;"  in  other  respects,  they  asserted 
tli^r  innocence,  which  their  blameless  private  Hves  confirmed. 
Weep  not  for  us,  who  are  departing  to  our  God  "-these 
were  Leisler  s  words  to  his  oppressed  friends-"  but  weep  for 
yourselves,  that  remain  behind  in  misery  and  vexation  ;  "add- 
ing, as  the  handkerchief  was  bound  round  his  face,  "I  hope 
hese  eyes  sha    see  our  Lord  Jesus  hi  heaven."     Milborne  ex- 

le ligon,  ,,,  ,,i     u   I  ,,as  bom  and  bred.     Father,  into  thy 
Jiaiuls  1  commend  my  spirit." 

Theappeal  to  the  king,  which  had  not  been  permitted  dur- 
nig  thoir  hves,  was  made  by  Leisler's  son;  aid,  though  the 
comm.ee  of  lords  of  trade  reported  that  'the  forms  tf  l!  v 

W  tl  o  l^\'''^Z"^''':     I^'^^atisfled  with  this  imperfect  re- 
es,_tl,efnendsof  Leisler  and  Milbome,  with  the  assent 


\i 


M 


»"  ■!■' 


an  if. 


persevered  till,  in  1005,  an  act  of  parliament,  str 


■enu- 


38         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748. 


PART  HI. :   on,  II. 


:i,^i 


oiisly  but  vainly  ojiposed  by  Dudley,  reversed  the  attainder. 
In  New  York  their  partisans  formed  a  powerful,  and  ulti^ 
mately  a  successful,  party.  The  rashness  and  incompetency  of 
Leisler  were  forgotten  in  sympathy  for  the  manner  of  his 
death ;  and  in  vain  did  his  opponents  rail  at  ecpiality  of  suf- 
frage and  demand  for  the  man  of  wealth  as  many  votes  as  he 
held  estates. 

There  existed  in  the  province  no  party  which  would  sacri- 
fi  je  colonial  freedom.  Even  the  legislature  of  1G91,  composed 
of  the  deadly  enemies  of  Leisler,  asserted  the  right  to  a  repre- 
sentative government  and  to  English  liberties  to  be  inherent 
in  the  people,  and  not  a  consequence  of  the  royal  favor  of 
King  Wilham.  "JM^o  tax  whatever  shall  be  levied  on  his 
majestie's  subjects  in  the  province,  or  on  their  estates,  on  any 
pretence  whatsoever,  but  by  the  act  and  consent  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  in  general  assembly  convened ;  "  "  su- 
preme legislative  power  belongs  to  the  governor  and  council 
and  to  the  people  by  their  representatives:"  such  was  the 
voice  of  the  most  loyal  assembly  that  could  ever  be  convened 
in  New  York.  "  New  England,"  ^vrote  the  royalist  council- 
lors, "  has  poisoned  the  western  parts,  formerly  signal  for  loyal 
attachments,  with  her  seditious  and  anti-monarchical  i)rinci- 
ples."  The  act,  by  which  "  a  subordinate  legislature  declared 
its  own  privileges,"  was  printed  among  the  laws  in  force  in 
New  York,  and  remained  six  years  in  England  before  it  re- 
ceived the  veto  of  King  William. 

In  August,  1692,  began  the  administration  of  the  covetous 
and  passionate  Fletcher.  By  his  restlessness  and  feebleness  of 
judgment,  the  people  of  New  York,  whom  he  described  as 
"divided,  contentious,  and  impoverislied,"  were  disciplined 
into  more  decided  resistance.  The  command  of  the  militia  of 
New  Jersey  and  of  Connecticut  was,  l)y  a  royal  eonnnission, 
conferred  on  him,  and  he  was  invested  with  powers  of  gov- 
ermnent  in  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware. 

An  address  was  sent  to  the  king,  rejjresenting  the  great 
cost  of  defendmg  the  frontiers,  and  re(piesting  that  the  neigh- 
boring colonies  might  contribute  to  the  protection  of  All)any. 
All  of  them  to  the  nortli  of  Carolina  were  accordingly  directed 
to  furnish  quotas  for  the  defence  of  New  York  or  for  attacks 


I  .    ,' 


1G95-1698.      NEW  YOKE  AFTER  THE  KEVOLUTION.  39 

on  Canada;  but  the  instructions,  tliougli  urgently  renewed 
were  never  enforced.  ' 

_    In  its  relations  toward  Canada,  New  York  shared  the  pas- 
sion fur  annexation,  which  gradually  extended  to  other  colonies 
In  Its  niternal  affairs  it  is  the  most  northern  province  that  ad- 
mitted by  enactment  an  establishment  of  the  Anglican  church 
Ihe  1  resbyterians  had  introduced  themselves  under  compacts 
with  the  Dutch  government.     The  original  settlers  from  the 
Netherlands  were  Calvinists,  yet  with  a  church  organization 
far  less  popular  than  that  of  New  England,  and  having  in  some 
degree  sympathy  with  the  ecclesiastical  polity  of  Eiikcopacv 
During  the  ascendency  of  the  Dutch,  it  had  often  been  as- 
serted m  an  exclusive  spirit;  when  the  colony  becai-'^  Encrlish 
the  conciuest  was  made  by  men  devoted  to  the  Enghsh  throne 
and  the  Enghsh  church,  and  the  inlluence  of  churchmen  be- 
came predominant  in  the  council.     It  is  not  strange,  therefore, 
that  the  efforts  ot  Fletcher  to  privilege  the  English  service 
were  par  lal ly  successful     The  house  framed  a  bill,  in  which 
they  established  certain  churches  and  ministers,  rcsemng  the 
nght  of  presentation  to  the  vestrymen  and  church-wardeuB 
The  governor,  interpreting  the  act,  hmited  its  meam.ig  to  the 
Enghsh  fonr.  of  worship,  and  framed  an  amendment  giving  the 
right  of  presentation  to  the  representative  of  the  crown      The 
assembly,   asserting   that  right  for   the  people,  rejected   the 
amendment.     ''  Then  I  must  tell  you,"  reto  Jd  EletiheV^  this 
seems  very  unmannerly.     There  never  was  an  amendment  de- 
Mred  by   he  ccnincil  board  but  what  was  rejected.     It  is  a  sign 
of  a  stubborn  ill-teuiper.     I  have  the  power  of  coUatmg  or  sl 
pendmg  any  mmister  ui  my  government  by  their  niaiesties' 
ters-patent;  and,  while  I  stay  in   this  govermnent, 'l  Z 
take  care  that  neither  heresy,  scliism,  nor  rebellion  be  preached 

t.r"lf.r/  r  ^"^  '^^  l""^""'^'  encom-aged.     You  seem  to 
take  the  whole  power  into  your  hands,  and  set  up  for  every 

ft* 

The  "stubborn  temper"  of  the  house  was  immovable- 
^rZw':^^  '''';  T  '}\''''  ""^^^  -^^  ^-  construeirto 
^valdens  of  the  church  established  in  New  York  might  call  a 
Protestant  minister  who  had  nut  received  Episcopal  ordina- 


1,1 


]i 


>  'i 


m 


&iM 

1 

H 

H 

■'       !!■• 

1 '         .1 

, 

)  1      \  I 

I        1  ■ 

40         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.    partiii.;  en.  n. 

tion.  Not  a  tenth  part  of  the  population  of  that  day  adhered 
to  the  Episcopal  church.  To  the  mixed  races  of  legislators 
in  the  province,  the  governor,  in  1697,  said  :  "  There  are  none 
of  you  but  what  are  big  Avith  the  privileges  of  Englishmen 
and  Magna  Charta." 

The  diiferences  were  tranquillized  in  the  short  administra- 
tion of  the  kindlier  earl  of  Bellomont,  an  Irish  peer,  with  a 
sound  heart  and  honorable  sympathies  for  popular  freedom. 
He  arrived  in  New  York  in  April,  1G98,  after  the  peace  of 
Ryswick,  with  a  commission,  including  New  York,  New  Jer- 
sey, and  all  New  England,  except  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island.  In  New  York,  Bellomont,  who  had  served  on  the 
committee  of  parliament  to  inquire  into  the  trials  of  Leisler 
and  Milborne,  was  indifferent  to  the  little  oligarchy  of  the 
royal  council,  of  which  he  reproved  the  vices  and  resisted  the 
selfishness.  The  memory  of  Leisler  was  revived ;  and  the 
assembly,  by  an  appropriation  of  its  own  in  favor  of  his  family, 
confirmed  the  judgment  of  the  English  parliament. 

The  enforcement  of  the  acts  of  trade  which  had  been 
violated  by  the  connivance  of  men  appointed  to  execute  them ; 
and  the  suppression  of  piracy  wliicli,  as  the  turbulent  off- 
spring of  long  wars  and  of  the  false  principles  of  the  com- 
mercial systems  of  that  age,  infested  every  sea  from  America 
to  China,  were  the  chief  purposes  of  Bellomont ;  yet  for  both 
he  accomplished  little.  The  acts  of  trade,  contradicting  the 
rights  of  humanity,  wero  evaded  everywhere;  but  in  New 
York,  a  city,  in  part,  of  aliens,  owing  allegiance  to  England, 
without  the  bonds  of  common  history,  kindred,  and  tongue, 
they  were  disregarded  without  scruple.  No  voice  of  con- 
science declared  their  violation  a  moral  offence ;  respect  for 
them  was  but  a  calculation  of  chances.  In  the  attempt  to 
suppress  piracy,  Bellomont  employed  William  Kidd,  nn  adven- 
turer, who  proved  false  to  his  trust,  and,  after  conWction  in 
England,  was  hanged  for  piracy  and  nnu'dcr. 

Neither  war  nor  illiberal  legislation  could  retard  the  growth 
of  the  city  of  New  York  in  commerce,  in  wealth,  and  in  num- 
bers. The  increased  taxes  were  imposed  with  equity  and  col- 
lected with  moderation.  "  I  will  ]}ocket  none  of  the  public 
money  myself,  nor  shall  there  be  any  embezzloment  by  others," 


5) 


1698-1708.      NEW  YORK   AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.  41 

was  tlio  lionest  promise  of  Eellomont ;  and  tlie  necessity  of 
the  promise  is  tlie  strongest  commentary  upon  the  character 
of  his  predecessors.  The  confiding  house  of  representatives 
voted  a  revenue  for  six  years,  and  placed  it,  as  before  at  the 
disposition  of  tlie  governor.  His  death  interrupted  the  short 
penod  of  hannony;  and,  happily  for  New  York,  Lord  Corn- 
bury,  his  successor  had  every  vice  of  character  necessary  to 
discipline  a  colony  into  self-reliance  and  resistance 

Ileiv  to  an  earldom,  he  joined  the  worst  foi-m  of  arroo-ance 

0  intellectual  imbecility.     Of  the  sagacity  and  firmness  0I  the 

com,non  mmd  he  knew  nothing;  of  political  power  he  had 

no  conception,  except  as  it  emanates  from  the  wiU  of  a  supe- 

ZnellTc'"''     V'^^'\'^^^^^^^  '  condescension. 

Educated  at  Geneva,  he  yet  loved  Episcopacy  as  a  religion  of 
state  subordinate  to  executive  power.  And  now  at  Xut 
forty  years  of  age,  with  self-will,  the  pride  of  rank,  4d  av  ! 
for  his  counsellors,  he  came  among  tiie  mixed  pe  I  ofX 
Jersey  and  of  New  York  as  their  governor 

n..?'  r?\  ^^''^  ''''^''''^'  '"^^^'^  ™  °°*  y^t  provoked  to  defi- 
ance, elected  an  a-ssembly  disposed  to  confide  in  the  inte^Z 
of  one  who  had  been  represented  as  a  friend  to  Presbyterians 
The  expenses  of  his  voyage  were  compensated  byf^r  J  f 
two  thousand  pounds,  and  an  annual  revenue  for  th!  pubhc 
service  was  provided  for  seven  years.     In  April   1 70^  .}        , 
was  made  of  fifteen  hundred  pUds  to  f^  1  ^N  ^1 
and  for  no  other  use  whatever."    But  Lord  Con,2yZt 
htt le  for  Imitations  by  a  provincial  assembly.     The  monev 
by  his  wammt,  disappeared  from  the  treasury'  while  tloTar' 
rows  we..e  left  defenceless;  and,  in  June,  the  assen  b  y   bv 
addivsses  to  the  governor  and  the  cpieen,  solicited  a      LS 
of  Its  0M.1  .ypomtment.     The  governor  sou^^ht  to  hide  hi 

Xr  '"'''''''  '''  "^"^^"^  '^'  *^-  ^-^^  of  Side 

bics  ought  to  have  all  the  privileges  of  a  house  of  commons  • 
but  how  dangerous  this  is,"  he  adds,  "I  need  not  say  "No 
new  approp.,ations  could  be  extorted ;  and,  lieedless  of  men 
aces  or  sohcitations,  the  representatives  of  the  peop  ?h 

asserted  ''  the  rights  of  the  house."     Lord  Cornbur„,l^d ! 

I  know  ot  no  right  that  you  have  as  an  ..embl/but  ^^ 's 


^1 

t  i 


^1 


■i 


I 


!  ! 


42         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  17-18.    pakt  hi.  ;  cii.  ir. 


,,     4 


the  queen  is  pleased  to  allow  you."  Broughton,  the  attorney- 
general  in  New  Yorlc,  reported  in  the  same  year  that  "  repub- 
lican spirits "  wei-e  to  be  found  there.  The  finnness  of  the 
assembly  won  its  iirst  victory ;  for  the  queen  permitted  specitie 
appropriations  of  incidental  grants  of  money,  and  the  appoint- 
ment by  the  general  assem])ly  of  its  own  treasurer  to  take 
charge  of  extraordinary  supphes. 

In  aifairs  relating  to  religion,  Lord  Conibury  was  equally 
imperious,  disputing  the  riglit  of  ministers  or  schoolmasters  to 
exercise  their  vocation  without  his  license.  His  long  unde- 
tected forgery  of  a  standing  instniction  in  favor  of  the  English 
church  led  only  to  acts  of  petty  tyranny,  useless  to  EngHsh 
interests,  degrading  the  royal  prerogative,  but  benefiting  the 
people  by  compelling  their  active  vigilance.  Their  power  re- 
dressed their  griefs.  When  Francis  Makemie,  a  Presbyterian, 
was  indicted  for  preaching  without  a  license  from  the  gov- 
ernor, and  the  chief  justice  ad\'ised  a  special  verdict,  the  jury 
— Episcopalians — constituted  themselves  the  judges  of  the  law, 
and  readily  agreed  on  an  acquittal.  In  like  manner,  at  Jamaica, 
the  church  which  the  whole  town  had  erected  was,  b}  the  con- 
nivance of  Cornbury,  reserved  exclusively  for  tlie  Episcopa- 
lians, an  injustice  which  was  reversed  in  the  colonial  courts. 

Twice  had  Cornbury  dissolved  the  assembly.  The  third, 
which  he  convened  in  August,  1708,  proved  how  rapidly  the 
political  education  of  tlie  pGOi)le  had  advanced.  Dutch,  Eng- 
lish, and  New  England  men  were  all  of  one  spirit.  The  rights 
of  the  people  Avith  regard  to  taxation,  to  courts  of  law,  to 
officers  of  the  ero^vn,  were  asserted  with  an  energy  to  which 
the  governor  could  offer  no  resistance.  Without  presence  of 
mind,  subdued  by  the  colonial  legislature,  and  as  dispirited  as 
he  was  indigent,  he  sul)mitted  to  the  ignominy  of  reproof,  and 
thanked  tlie  assembly  for  the  simplest  act  of  justice. 

In  New  Jersey  there  were  the  same  demands  for  money, 
and  a  still  more  wary  refusal;  rei)resentatives,  elected  in  1704 
by  a  majority  of  votes,  were  excluded  by  the  governor ;  one 
assembly  after  another  was  angrily  dissolved.  At  last  neces- 
sity compelled  a  third  assembly,  and  among  its  members  were 
Samuel  Jennings  and  Lewis  Morris.  The  latter  was  of  a  lib- 
eral mind  and  intrepid,  yet  having  no  fixed  system ;  the  former, 


1704-1710.     NEW  YORK  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.  43 

elected  speaker  of  the  assembly,  was  a  true  Quaker,  of  a  liastv 
yet  benevolent  tem])er,  faithful  in  his  iiifections,  "  stiff •  and 
impractieable  in  polities."     These  are  they  whom  Lord  Corn- 
bury  desenbes  "as  capable  of  anything  but  good;"  whom 
C^uariy  and  other  subserWent  counsellors  accuse  as  "turbulent 
and  disloyal  "  "  encouraging  the  governments  in  Anu-rica  to 
throw  oft  tlie  royal   prerogative,  declaring  openly  that  the 
royal  mstructions  bind  no  further  than  they  are  warranted  by 
T'''^    A  !  '*''''^'^'^''  according  to  the  usage  of  that  day,  in 
Apnl    1<(),,  wait  on  the  governor  with  their  remonstrance, 
liie  Quaker  speaker  reads  it  for  them  most  audibly      It  ac- 
cuses Cornbury  of  accepting  bribes ;  it  deals  sharply  with  "his 
new  methods  of  government,"  his  "encroachment"  on  the 
popular  liberties  by  "assuming  a  negative  voice  to  the  free- 
holders election  of  their  representatives;"  "tliey  have  neither 
heads,  hearts  nor  souls,  that  are  not  forward  with  their  utmost 

Stop!  exclaimed  Cornbury,  as  the  undaunted  Quaker  de- 
hvered  the  remonstrance;  and  Jennings  m.ekly  and  distinctlv 
repeated  it,  with  greater  emphasis  than  before.  Cornbury  at- 
ten.pted  t.    retort,  charging  the  Quakers  with  disloyalty  and 

it  "ti*^^'^.'"^^"^^''^^'  "^  '^''  ^'^'-^^  ^f  ^ehemiah  to  Sanbal- 
iat.  There  is  no  such  thing  done  as  thou  sayest,  but  thou 
feignest  them  out  of  thine  own  heart."  And  they  left  for  the 
instruction  of  future  governors,  this  weighty  tnfth :  "To  en- 
gage the  affections  of  the  people,  no  artifice  is  needful  but  to 

Ihem^Tri^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  "  '"  ^"^'^^"^^"^  ^'  ^^-^  ^^^-^-  to 

Lord  Conibury,  more   successful  than   anv   Datriot    l,nrl 

r  ,  •      °  "^'™"^'  ^''*"'''  '"  April.  l'»i>>  >™t  Lord 

Wlaco,  l„s  short-lived  successor,  began  the  content  that  ™ 
never  to  cease  but  with  iudepeudeuce.  The  crown  den.™kd  a 

tor«a.d  wo  dd  raise  only  an  annual  revenue,  and  appropriate 
;t  specflcally.     That  province  was  stn.g,!  n-  to      ale  ^o 
mcrcase  of  the  power  of  the  assembly  ,u,%en  „   ta  i  tn^T 
ttonof  cve^  grant.    The  prorincial  reve.lne,  as  ^   IMc 
by  la,,,  would  not  exi,irc  till  1709;  but  the  war  d,..,nandcd 


\   I  \ 


I  i 


pit 


n 


t  1)9 


44         imiTlSII  AMERICA  FKOM  1088  TO  174«. 


TAUT  III. ;  en.  u. 


■i;     I    '.      ,1 


extraordinary  8iipi)Hes;  and,  in  1704,  tlio  moneys  voted  by 
the  asseinhly  were  to  bo  disbursed  by  its  own  officers.     The 
royal  coinieil,  instnicted  from  England,  would  have  money 
expended  only  on  the  warrant  of  the  governor  and  council; 
but  the  delegates  resolved  that  "  it  is  inconvenient  to  allow 
the  council  to  amend  money  bills ; »  and  council,  governor 
and  board  of  trade  yielded  to  the  fixed  will  of  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  i)eople.     In  1705,  the  assembly  was  allowed 
by  the  (jueen  "  to  name  their  own  treasurer,  when  they  raised 
extraordinary   sui)plies;"    by  degrees  all   legislative   grants 
came  to  be  regarded  as  such,  and  to  be  placed  i.i  the  keeping 
of  the  treasurer  of  the  assembly,  beyond  the  control  of  the 
governor.     In  170S,  the  delegates,  after  claiming  for  the  peo- 
ple the  choice  of  coroners,  made  a  solemn  declaration  that 
"  tlie  levying  of  money  upon  her  majesty's  subjects  in  this 
colony,  under  any  pretence  whatsoever,  'without  consent  in 
general  assembly,  is  a  grievance;"  and,  in  1700,  as  the  condi- 
tion of  joining  in  an  eifort  against  Canada,  the  legislature  as- 
sumed executive  functions.    In  the  same  year,  by  withholdino- 
grants,  they  prepared  to  compel  their  future  governors  to  an 
annual  capitulation. 

In  1710,  Lovelace's  successor,  Robert  Hunter,  the  friend 
of  Swift,  the  ablest  in  the  series  of  the  royal  governors  of 
'New  York,  a  man  of  good  temper  and  discernment,  whom  the 
ministry  enjoined  to  supi)ress  the  "  illegal  trade  still  carried 
on  with  the  Dutch  islands"  and  with  the  enemy  under  "Hags 
of  truce,"  found  himself  in  his  province  powerless  and  with- 
out a  salary.     To  a  friend  he  writes :  "  Here  is  the  finest  air 
to  live  upon  in  the  universe ;  the  soil  bears  all  things,  liut  not 
for  me ;  for,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  country,  the 
sachems  are  the  poorest  of  the  people."     "  Sancho  Panza  Avas 
indeed  l)ut  a  type  of  me."     In  less  than  five  months  after  his 
an-ival  he  was  disputing  with  an  asseml)ly.     As  they  would 
neither  grant  appropriations  for  more  than  "a  year,  nor'give  up 
the  supervision  of  their  own  treasurer  over  i)ayments  from 
the  public  revenue,  they  were  prorogued  and  dissolved. 

Percei\dng  that  their  conduct  was  groimded  on  permanent 
motives,  he  made  his  report  accordingly;  and  his  letters 
reached  England  when  Saint-John,  a  young  man  of  thirty, 


J 


ll,.  f 


1711-1714.      NEW  YOHK  AFTER  THE  KEVOLUTION.  45 

better  known  a«  Lord  ]iolii.^rl,roke,  had  beeomo  secretary  of 
state.  Jn  March,  1711,  a  bill  was  drawn  under  the  superin- 
tendence of  the  board  of  trade,  reciting  the  ne-lcct  of  the 
geiieral  asseml,!^  of  New  York  to  contiiuie  thi;  taxes  which 
had  been  granted  in  all  the  previous  sixteen  years,  and  impos- 
ing them  by  act  of  parliament.  Sir  Edward  Northey,  the  at- 
torney-general, and  Sir  Robert  Raymond,  the  solicitor,  botii 
approved  the  bill ;  but  it  was  intended  as  a  measure  of  intimi- 
dation and  n..t  to  be  passed.  Meantime,  Hunter  wrote  to 
bamt-John :  ''  The  colonies  are  hifants  at  their  mother's  breasts, 
but  will  wean  thems(>lves  when  they  come  of  age." 

The  desire  to  conquer  Canada  prevailed,  in  the  summer  of 
1711,  to  obtain  for  that  jjurpose  a  specific  grant  of  bills  of 
credit  for  ten  thousand  pounds.     But  when  fresh  instn.etions 
with  a  copy  of  the  bill  for  taxing  New  York  by  parliam      ' 
were  laid  before  the  assembly,  no  concession  was  made.     Th 
council,  clainung  the  rig],t  to  amend  money  bills,  asserted  that 
the  liousehke  Itself,  existed  only  ''by  the  mere  grace  of  the 
crown;"  but  the  assembly  defied  the  opinion  of  fhe  lords  of 
tiade  as  concluding  nothing.     The  share  of  the  council  in 
making  laws  they  agreed,  comes  "from  the  mere  pleasure  of 
the  prince;"  but  for  their  own  house  they  churned  an  "inhe' 
ent  right     to  legislation,  springing  "not  Lm  any  commis  on 
or  gnmt   i-om  the  crown,  but  from  the  free  choice  and  Z 
tio     of  the  people,  who  ought  not,  nor  justly  can,  be  divested 
of  their  property  .vithout  their  consent  " 
ter  ^  l:^  Saint- John  a  report  of  these  proceedings.  Hun- 
ter a  lote.  "The  mask  is  thrown  off.      The  delegate    hive 
called  in  .question  the  council's  share  in  the  legislatur^    mm    d 
up  un  m  erent  right,  declared  the  powers  granted  by  he  X' 

step  to  make  toward  Avhat  I  am  unwilling  to  name.     The  as 
sembhes,  claiming  all  the  privileges  of  a^iouse  of  commas 
and  s  re  clung  them  even  beyond  what  they  were  eve   iZ 
mal  to  be  thexe  should  the  councillors  by  L  same     ile T 

natc  ^vlth   and  consequently  independent  of,  the  great  council 
of  the  realm  ;  yet  this  is  the  plan  of  govenuuent^hey  I  ^ 
at,  and  make  no  scruple  to  own."     "  Unless  some  spi^dv 


fl 


y 


46 


BRITIHII  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  174fi.     pabt  m. ;  cii.  ii. 


effectual  remedy  l)e  ii|)i)Ii((l,  the  disease  will  l)ecoiuo  desper- 
ate," "  If  the  asseinbly  of  New  York,"  reported  the  lords  of 
trade,  in  1712,  "is  suffi-red  to  proceed  after  this  manner,  it 
may  prove  of  very  dan<i:(  rous  conscciuenee  to  that  province, 
and  of  very  ill  example  to  the  other  governments  in  America, 
who  are  already  but  too  nnich  inclined  to  assume  pretended 
rights,  tending  to  independency  on  the  crown."  And  Ilr.nter, 
as  he  saw  the  province  add  to  its  population  at  lejist  one  third 
in  the  reign  of  Anne,  mused  within  himself  on  "  what  the 
consecpiences  were  likely  to  be,  when,  u])on  such  an  increase, 
not  only  the  support  of"  the  royal  "government,  but  the  in- 
clinaticm  of  the  peo]>le  to  support  it  at  all,  decreases."  Again 
the  board  of  trade  instructed  him  on  the  duty  of  the  legis- 
lature, and  again  the  legislature  remained  inflexible.  Tlio 
menacing  mandates  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  did  but 
increase  the  ill  humor  of  New  York. 


II 


1080-1094.    CONNECTICUT  AFTER  THE  KEv^OLUTION. 


47 


m 


^*  i 


CHAPTER  III. 

NEW   ENGLAND   AFTEB   THE   REVOLUTION. 

New  York  would  willingly  have  extended  her  hoimdarv 
over  a  ])art  of  Connfctkm't  •  l.nf  T..o„f  •.  "uundary 

in  M-.V  IfJ^o  ^  "''^'^''^f ';V  '  i?*  ^'^''*'  ^ts  f^'ovenior,  having, 
m  Maj  IfiSO,  resinned  hm  office,  the  assembly,  which  soon 
convened  obeying  the  declared  opinion  of  the  free  1  T 

fTTe  T 'rr''''' ''"^'''"'^ '^ ^^--- eba "'b ; 

Wi  lia  :  and  V       'T}  I'''  '''''''  °^  ^^^  -----  of 

an.hitr.,poweV'^^:i-— ^ 

..k™  ,,.„p„.,p,    „,  Con„ecfe,t  elected  tl"  r^lf/ovenr 
ferrorl  tl.n        \.   ^^^  ^.'^''^-     ^he  legislature  resisted,  and  re- 


1 

U  1' 

Up 

■  '  '      '  > 

m 

•f  L      "'\ 

m 

!:'*■;  ] 

K 

1 ' ■  "'i  ' 

K 

' 

■1 

:    M 

48        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748. 


Fitz-Jolm  WintLrop.  To  give  the  command  of  the  militia,  it 
was  said,  to  tlie  governor  of  another  colony,  is,  in  effect,  to  put 
our  persons,  interests,  and  liberties  entirely  into  his  po-wer; 
by  our  charter,  the  governor  and  company  themselves  have  a 
commission  of  command. 

In  October  of  that  year,  Fletcher,  refusing  to  await  an  an- 
swer from  Enghmd,  repaired  to  Hartford  with  a  small  retinue, 
to  assume  the  authority  over  the  militia,  conferred  on  him  by 
his  instructions.  lie  caused  his  commission  to  be  read  to  the 
general  court  Avhich  was  then  in  session,  and  he  presented  to 
the  governor  a  memorial  requiring  obedience  to  the  king's 
command.  At  the  end  of  two  days  they  sent  him  a  paper, 
insisting  on  their  charter,  and  refusing  compliance.  To  the 
British  secretary  of  state  he  reported  that  he  had  gone  as  far 
as  he  could  without  resorting  to  force,  saying,  further:  "1 
never  saw  magistracy  so  prostituted  as  here ;  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land have  no  force  in  this  colony ;  they  set  up  for  a  i-  ee  state." 
In  April  KlO-t,  the  king  in  council  decidod,  on  the  advice  of 
Ward  and  Treves,  that  the  ordinary  power  of  the  militia  in 
Connecticut  and  in  Rhode  Island  belonged  to  their  respective 
governments ;  and  AVinthrop,  returuing  from  his  agency  to  a 
joyful  welcome,  Avas  soon  elected  governor  of  the  colony. 

The  decisions  Avhich  established  the  rights  of  Connecticut 
included  Tinoj)!-;  Island,  These  two  commonwealths  were  the 
portion  of  the  British  em2)ire  distinguished  above  all  others 
by  tlie  largest  liberty.  Each  was  a  nearly  perfect  democracy 
under  the  shelter  of  a  monarchy.  But  the  results  in  the  two 
were  not  strictly  parallel.  In  Rhode  Island,  as  all  freemen 
had  a  joint  interest  in  the  large  commons  of  laud  in  the  sev- 
eral townships,  the  right  of  admitting  freemen  was  parcelled 
out  among  the  toA\'Tis  to  the  injury  of  the  central  power. 
Moreover,  as  Rh./de  Island  rested  on  the  principle  of  freedom 
of  conscience  and  nu'nd,  there  was  no  established  church,  nor 
public  worship  prescribed  by  law,  nor  limit  on  the  right  of 
indidduals  to  unite  for  offices  of  religion.  In  Connecticut 
each  oi^e  of  its  thirty  towns  had  its  church  and  its  educated 
minister  These  churches  Avere  consociated  by  an  act  of  legis- 
lation, and  no  new  one  could  be  formed  witliout  the  couf-ent 
of  the  general  court.     Every  man  was  obliged  l)y  law  to  con- 


W01-'5, 1689.    EIIODE  ISLAND  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.       49 

iribnte  according  to  Lis  substauce  to  tlie  support  of  the  minis 
tor  «-,t  n„  v.-I.osc  prcciuct  lie  resided.  Free  schools  trained  up 
every  chdd  m  this  Christian  commonwealth.  It  was  lii-st  the 
custon,,  and  in  17(iS,  it  became  the  order,  that  "the  nunistera 
of  .I,e  gospel  should  preach  a  semion  on  the  day  appointed  hy 
aw  for  the  cho.ce  o*  civ  il  rulers,  proper  for  tL  i  rection  of 
the  towns  m  the  work  l>efore  them." 

The  crown  by  reserving  to  itself  the  right  of  anneal  had 
»tUI  a  n,ethod  of  interfering  in  the  inte,™l  conce L'J^  .he 
vo  repu  1,  ,cs.    Both  of  then,  were  inc'nded  among  the  colo! 
mcs  ,n  winch  the  lords  of  trade  advised  a  complete  restora&n 
of  the  preroga mcs  of  the  crown.    Both  we,     ,a,ned  in    he 
b,ll  which,  m  April,  1701.  was  i,rtrodnced  into  ,,arliam<iu  f„ 
the  abrogation  of  all  A,neriean  chartei-s.     The  ionrin    of  tl^ 
bouse  0     lords  relate  that  Connecticut  was     1  h    1  •  h^^^^^^^ 
■«an,.,t  the  measure,  and  come.idcd   that  ,ls  lihcrt  es  were 
.eld  by  contract  hi  return  for  services  that  had  1    en    "r 
formed ;  th.it  t^c  taking  away  of  so  ,naily  charters  wo    d'de 
«troy  all  confidence  in  royal   promises,  .and  wonhl   "Zd\ 
precedent  dimgerons  to  all  the  chartered  corporations  of  E  . 
land.    1  „t  the  bdl  was  read  a  second  ti.ue,  and  its  priiici^  le 
as  applied  to  colonics,  was  .advocated  by  the  nicrcantil    ntS 
and  by  •'  great  men  "  in  England.     The  iinpcnding  w,  r  with 

But  the  object  W.1S  not  left  out  of  niind.    Lord  Conihurv 

;;-.toE,.g,andt;iiV;;:X— ^^^^^^^ 

mens  were  brenght  under  the  crown."  An  oHicer  rf  the 
English  government  sought  to  rouse niercantilcavaXeigut 
tW  people  o    Connecticut  by  reporting  .hat,  "  if  tir^t™™ 

aetfc,took  tl,e  lead  m  the  conspiracy  against  the  liberties  of 
New  England,  prejiaring  a  volume  of  c^npiaints,  and  L^Tt,^ 
'"8."?  the  appo,nt„,ent  of  a  governo,-  over  Comi^ctic  ,  bv  he 
royal  pivi-ogat  vo.     The  loi-h-  „*  t,.„ ,  "ceiicut  oj  the 

'         VOL.  n;_i  ''''  "■"'■'^  '""  i"»t  to  <!»"- 


w 


;   1 

1     ;           1 

i 

1 

i  > 

(I 

ii 

i 
1 


.[ 

\ 

I'j    ; 

u 

i 

i 

\ 

.,  \ 

t 

i 

■  i 

1: 

! 

i 

50        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  iii. ;  en.  in. 

demn  tlie  colony  unlieard,  and  it  succeeded  in  its  vindication ; 
but  an  obsolete  law  against  Quakers,  which  had  never  been 
enforced,  after  furnishing  an  excuse  for  outcries  against 
Puritan  intolerance,  was  declared  null  and  void  by  the  queen 
in  council. 

The  insurrection  in  Massachusetts,  which  had  overthrown 
the  dominion  of  Andros,  had  signing  spontaneously  from  the 
people,  and  it  insisted  on  the  resumption  of  the  charter.  But 
among  the  magistrates,  and  especially  among  the  ministers, 
£  ^me  distrusted  every  popular  movement,  and  sought  to  con- 
trol a  revolution  of  which  they  feared  the  tendency.  Espe- 
cially Cotton  Mather,  claiming  only  English  liberties,  and  not 
charter  liberties,  and  seltishly  jealous  of  popular  pov\'er,  was 
eager  to  tliwart  the  design ;  and,  against  the  opinion  of  the 
venerable  Bradstreet,  the  charter  magistrates,  in  April,  1089, 
joining  to  themselves  "  the  principal  inhabitants  "  of  Boston, 
constituted  themselves  a  "council  for  the  safety  of  the  people," 
and  "  humbly "  waited  "  for  direction  of  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land." "  Had  they,  at  that  time  " — it  is  the  statement  of  In- 
crease Mather — "  entered  upon  the  full  exercise  of  their  char- 
ter government  as  their  undoubted  right,  wise  men  in  England 
were  of  opinion  they  might  have  gone  on  without  disturb- 
ance." 

When,  in  May,  the  convention  of  the  people  assembled, 
they  were  jealous  of  their  ancient  privileges.  Instead  of  recog- 
nising the  self-constituted  council,  they  declared  the  governor, 
deputy  governor,  and  assistants,  chosen  and  sworn  in  108G  ac- 
cording to  charter  rights,  and  the  deputies  sent  by  the  freemen 
of  the  towns,  to  be  the  government  now  settled  in  the  colony. 
The  self-constituted  council  resisted ;  and  the  (juestion  was  re- 
ferred to  the  people.  Nearly  four  fifths  of  the  towns,  in  their 
annual  May  meeting,  instructed  their  rei)resentati-es  to  reas- 
smnc  their  charter;  but  the  pertinacity  of  a  majority  of  the 
council  permitted  only  a  compromise.  In  June,  the  represen- 
tatives, upon  a  new  choice,  assembled  in  Boston,  and  they, 
too,  refused  to  act  till  the  old  charter  officers  should  take  up 
their  power  as  of  right.  The  council  accepted  tlie  condition, 
but  only  as  a  temporary  measure,  subject  to  directions  from 
England.     Indeed,  the  time  had  gone  by  to  do  otherwise.     Al- 


1688.       MASSACnUSETTS  AFTER  THE  EEVOLOTION.  ^ 

™<ly  an  ^Ito.  to  King  WiUiam,  from  "prmeipd  inlmbitante" 
who  ca  led  I,™  v«  "a  conncil,"  Lad  contained  tl.o  a^nce 
that  they  ha.l  not  entered  npon  the  full  cxerei.se  of  the  eliar- 
ter  government,"  and  ™  .soon  answered  by  the  royal  assent  to 
a  e  ten,i>ora,-y  organization  which  the  conned  had  adopted. 

?r!!    ■'    T^i '"":  '"'"  "'  *'«=  "g^-'y  f"  tl'e  colony,  Sir 

Sfmas'cllS.  "'"'   ''^   ^^"»"^   '— %   •'»*  '-  able 
A  revolntion  in  opinion  w,i8  imjxinding.     The  reformation 
to  ovctinw  aeenmnlated  superstitions,  went  back  rf  the    °U 
and  sought  the  criterion  of  truth  alone  in  the  open  Bible    anS 

ot  Its  letter.    But  true  religion  has  no  alliance  witli  bondao-e 

mte.p,et  the  records  of  the  past  .and  separate  time-hallowed 

jZ  r  wCw  e  T%  ■'"  ^"*'"™''»' «» -•-■"'»»' 

Jan  es  I.,  who  had  exiilaincd  m  a  treatise  "  whv  tlie  devil  dntl, 
work  more  with  anneient  women  than  with  othe  *>  at    n^l  e 
op.m„„  of  Bacon,  had  "observed  excellently    cU  the  ^^^^^^^^^^^ 
witchcraft,'  a  parliament  of  which  Bacon  a^d  Coke  ve  " 

tie  l^  ow       T  T   'T  T°  '"='•'''''''  ''"'"'  P<'»*«1  « 

k  th    s  itt  nem It,  °"''  f  Massachusetts  established 

liu ishme  ,t  b       >  •  '■■""'"«  ''""'  "'"  ^"iwrstition  an,l  its 

n  '  ™    t  le  i    '  "■:* "'™'"=  *»  »  J™''*  '-.  of  >vl'ieU  the  mean- 
ing ami  the  intent  were  misunderstood 

Like  the  Jews,  they  had  tied  to  a  wilderness ;  lilce  the  Jews 
jt4  t   1  ';   '™™  '"  "  "«'"  '»  '^»«  «'™  0.1     ilJ  s 

its    im     ot  t       r  *'V  ""'  "-y'l--i™'l  •■""■li  of  tlieir 
A  cautions  doubt  prepared  to  reraov. 


,\'} 


»     fi 


''^^^'^'  ''''-'-J  '-seated  ]S\nv  En-land.     Tlie 


2  error  from  the  faith 
time  had  gone  by  for 


inilTISir  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1718. 


rAUT  HI. ;  rii.  iii. 


the  inembcrs  of  the  cluurh  to  control  tlio  oloctive  tVaiiclii.sc, 
or  the  ministers  to  remain  the  luIviHers  of  the  state.  H-it  Cot- 
ton Matlier,  one  of  the  Jninisters  of  tlie  North  (;hnr('h  in  IJos- 
ton,  bh'ndly  and  i)assionately  resisted  tlie  inevitable  ehan^^e, 
and  for  a  moment  divided  the  eomnuinitj  into  a  party  whh-h 
clung  to  all  that  had  been  received,  and  a  party  that  welcomed 
the  calm  but  irresistible  advances  of  intelligence.  "New  Kn<>- 
land,"  lie  cried,  "being  a  country  whose  interests  are  renuirk- 
ably  i]nvrai)ped  in  ecclesiastical  circumstances,  ministers  ought 
to  concern  themselves  in  politics." 

In  KJSS,  the  last  year  of  the  administration  of  Andros,  who, 
as  the  servant  of  arbiti-ary  power,  had  no  motive  to  war  against 
the  dominion  of  superstition  over  mind,  the  daughter  of  John 
Goodwin,  a  child  of  thirteen  years,  charged  a  laundi-ess  with 
having  stolen  linen  from  the  family;  (i  lover,  the  mother  of 
the  laundress,  a  friendless  emigrant,  rebuked  the  child  for  her 
false   accusation.      Immediately  the  g^-1  became  bewit(;hed. 
Three  others  of   the   family  would  allect  to   be  deaf,  then 
dumb,  tlien  blind,  oi-  all  at  once;  they  would  bark  like  dogs, 
or  j.urr  like  cats;  but  they  ate  well  and  slei)t  well,     (^)tton 
Mather  went  to  i)rayer  by  the  side  of  one  of  them,  and,  lo ! 
the  child  lost  her  hearing  till  prayer  was  over.     The  four  min- 
isters of  Boston,  and  the  one  of  Charlestown,  assembled  in 
Gt)odwin's  house,  and  spent  a  day  in  fasting  and  ])i-ayer.     In 
consequence,  a  child  of  four  years  old  was  "delivered."     But, 
if  the  ministers  could  by  i)rayer  deliver  a  jwssessed  cliild,  there 
must  have  been  a  witch;  and  the  magistrates,  Williiini  Stough- 
ton  being  one  of  the  judges,  all  holding  commissions  exdu- 
sively  from  the  English  king,  and  alf  irresponsible  to  the 
lUH)i)le  of  Massachusetts,  Avith  a  "vigor"  which  the  united 
ministers  commended  as  "just,"  made  "a  discovery  of  the 
wicked  instrument  of  the  devil."     The  culprit  was  a  wihl 
Irish  wonum,  of  a  strange   tongue,  and,  as  some   thought, 
"crazed  in  her  intellectuals."     She  could  repeat  the  Lord's 
prayer  in  Latin,  but  not  in  English.     Convicted  as  a  witch, 
she  was  executed.     "  Here,"  it  was  proclaimed,  "  was  food  for 
faith." 

As  the  possessed  damsel  obtained  no  relief,  Cotton  Mather, 
eager  to  learn  the  nuirvels  of  the  world  of  spirits,  and  "  wish- 


lier, 


1088-1081).     MASSACHUSETTS  AFTKU   THE   KEVOLUTION.      53 

inic  to  confute  the  Saddncism"  of  his  ti.ncs,  invited  her  to  iiis 
honse;  ;,nd  the  artful  -iri  plaje.l  upon  iiis  credulity.     The 
devd  Avouhl  porn,it  iier  to  read  in  (^)uaker  hooks,  or  die  Com- 
i.mn    Prayer,   or   popish    hooks ;   hut  a   prayer   froin   (Jotton 
Mather,  or  a  cliaj.ter  from  the  Hihle,  would  throw  lier  into 
convulsions.     By  a  series  of  experinicnts  in  readin-  aloud  pas- 
sa,i,.es  from  the  IJihle  in  various  lau.i^.uases,  the  minister  satisfied 
Inmse  M'hy  trials  of   their  capacity,"  that  devils  are  well 
skj  led  in  lau-ua-os,  an<l  know   Latin  and  Greek,  and  even 
Jlehrew;  though  he  fell  'M.pon  one  inferior  Indian  lan.n.a<-e 
which  the  diumons  did  not  seem  so  well  to  understarxl  "     Fx 
pernnents  were  made,  with  unequal  success,  to  see  if  they  c^m 
know  the  thoughts  of  others;  and  the  inference  was  that  "all 
devils  are  not  alike  sagacious."     The  vanity  of  Cotton  Mather 
^.js  teher  gratified;  for  the  hewitched  girl  would  say  th 
the  evil  spun  s  could  not  enter  his  study,  and  that  his  own 
person  was  shielded  hy  God  against  their  blows 

Tn  1(]8!),  the  rapid  i)rogress  of  free  iiupury  gave  alarm. 

Ihere  are  multitudes  of  Saddueees  in  our  day,"  sighed  Cot 

ton  Ma  lier;  "a  devil,  in  the  apprehension  of^'these  mi^itv 

We  sliall  come  to  have  no  Christ  but  a  light  within  and  no 
Leaven  but_  a  frame  of  mind."  "Men  ccl^nted  it  w  sZ  u^ 
credit  nothing  but  what  they  see  and  feel.  Tliey  rever  w 
any  witches ;  therefore,  there  are  none."  "  How  m^  1  "  Z 
lie  ministers  of  J^oston  and  Charlestown,  "this  fond  o  ,ini  n 
has  gotten  ground  is  awfully  observable."  "W  c  r  f  " 
^-ted  Cotton  Mathe.  from  the  pulpit,  "is  the  nu.t  :^. 
do      high^eascn.  against  the  Majesty  on  high       "a  capital 

«od  1.  pleased  "said  the  ministers,  ^>  to  suffer  devils  ti  do 
such  things  in  the  world  as  shall  stop  the  mouths  of  -nin 

Tswer  t  :  '  """"'"'  "^  ^'''''''  '""'^  Charlestown  as  an 

'-J  a  devil,  and  witchcraft;"  and  Cotton  Mather,  announcing 


I,  f 


n 


;!  "< 


m 


f  ! 


I'!' 


^'^m 


54      mimm  amkkica  from  less  to  ms.   pa  .,■  ,„.;  on.  m. 

himself  as  an  cjc-witness,  resolved  hencefc^r\var(l  to  renjard 
"  the  denial  of  devils,  or  of  witches,"  as  a  pei-.sonal  allVont, 
the  evidence  "of  iirnoranee,  incivility,  and  dishonest  impu- 
dence." 

The  l)ook  was  widely  distributed.  It  o-ained  fresh  power 
from  England,  where  it  was  "published  by  Klchard  IJa.xter," 
who  declared  the  evidence  strong  enough  to  convince  all  but 
"  a  very  obdurate  Haddueee." 

^^  This  tale  went  abroad  at  a  moment  wlien  the  accession  of 
King  William  ins])ired  hojjes  of  the  concpiest  of  New  France. 
Tlie  agents  of  JMassachusetts,  a])peallng  to  the  commoii  enmity 
toward  I'^rance,  solicited  a  restoration  of   its  charter.     King 
William  was  a  fiiend  to  Calvinists,  and,  in  March  :1(!81),  at  his 
first  interview  with  Increase  Mathei-,  conceded  the  recall  of 
Sir  Kdmund  Aiulros.     The  convention  parliament  voted  that 
the  taking  away  of  the  New  England  charters  was  a  grievance; 
and  the  English   Presbyterians,  with  singular  aJl'ection,  de- 
clared that  "  the  king  cjould  not  ])ossibly  do  anything  more 
grateful  to  liis  dissenting  subjects  hi  England  than  by  restor- 
ing to  New  England  its  former  privileges."     The  dissolution 
of  the  convention  ])arlianient,  followed  by  one  in  which  an 
infiuence  friendly  to  the  tories  was  ])erce])tii)le,  destroyed  every 
prospect  of  relief  from  the  English  legislature ;  to  attempt  a 
reversal  of  the   judgment   by   a   writ  of  error  was  useless. 
There  was  no  avenue  to  success  but  through  the  favor  of  a 
monarch  who  loved  authority.     The  i)eople^of  New  England 
"are  like  the  Jews  under  Cyrus,"  said  Wiswall,  the  agent  for 
Plymouth  colony :  with  a  new  monarch  "  on  the  throne  of 
their  oppressors,  they  hope  in  vain  to  rebuild  their  city  and 
their  sanctuary." 

In  July,  William  III.  professed  friendship  for  IVIiissachu- 
setts.  His  subjects  in  New  England,  said  Increase  Mather,  if 
they  could  but  enjoy  "their  ancient  rights  and  privileges," 
would  make  him  "the  emperor  of  America."  In  the  family 
of  Hampden,  .Alassachusetts  inherited  a  i)owerful  intercessor. 
The  countess  of  Sunderland  is  remend)ered  in  America  as  a 
benefactress.  The  aged  Lord  Wharton,  last  survivor  of  the 
Westnnnster  assembly,  "a  constant  and  cor. Hal  lover  of  all 
good  men,"  never  grew  weary  in  his  zeal.     Tillotson,  the  tol- 


J'l 


1089-1090.    MASSAOIitJSETTS  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION.      55 

erant  arclibishop  of  Canterbury,  charged  the  king  "„ot  to 
take  away  fr.^ui  the  people  of  Now  England  any  of  the  privi 
leges  which  ClKirles  I.  had  granted  then"     "The  chaiV'r" 
said  Bnrnet  "  wa8  not  an  act  of  grace,  but  a  contract  betwcJn 
the  knig  and  the  hrst  patentees,  who  promised  to  enlarge  the 
king  H  donnnion  at  their  o^vn  charges,  provided  they  and  their 
posterity  might  enjoy  certain  privileges."     Yet  'Soniers  re- 
siste(  Its  restoration,  pleading  its  imperfections.     The  charter 
sketched  by  Sir  (Jeorge  Treby  was  rejected  by  the    rivy  coun- 
cil for  Its  hberality ;  and  tlu-.t  wluch  was  fin'ally  conceded  re- 
served such  powers  to  the  crown  that  Elisha  Cooke,  the  popu- 
lar envoy,  declineu  to  accept  it.     Eut  Increase  Mather,  an 
earlier  agent  for  the  colony,  ar.nounced  it  as  conferring  on  the 
geiieral  court,  "wUh  the  king's  approbation,  as  nmch  power 
m  mw  Eng  uul  as  the  king  and  parliament  have  in  E.^Z 
The  people  have  ali  English  liberties,  can  be  touched ty  no 

!?;i!::;  them:::;;^'  "^''^^'  "^^  ^^^ '-  *-^^  ^  -^  -^- 

elec^ll'fir-"''  "^  ^^a««''^1"-etts,  under  the  old  charter,  had 
elected  their  governor  annually;  that  officer,  the  lieutenant- 
governor,  and  the  secretary  were  henceforward  appointed  by 

ivo  of%     rf         T^''''''''''^  1^«  ^^«  now  the  rep.esenta- 
le  c^  Engbsh  royalty,  and  could  convene,  adjourn    or  dis- 

annually  elected  their  magi- rates  or  judicial  officers;  the 
.ludges  were  now  appointed,  with  consent  of  .onncil,  by  the 
royal  governor     The  decisions  in  the  courts  of  JS'ew  England 

mttcd  The  freemen  had  exercised  the  full  power  of  legisla- 
tion within  themselves  by  their  deputies ;  the  warrior  king  e- 
served  a  double  veto-an  inmiediate  negative  by  the  governor 
0  the  colony,  while,  at  any  time  within  three  vears,  rheli  " 
might  cancel  any  act  of  colonial  legislation.  In  one  respect^ 
the  new  charter  was  an  advancement.  Every  form  of  Chri.ti 
an^,  except  the  Eonian  Catholic,  was  enfi^ichised ;  and     1 

tTe  n  f^;r'  ''%'T'T  ''  '^"  ^^^°">'  ^^  ^-^^--  --t-cted  to 
the  members  of  the  church,  was  extended  so  widely  as  to  be 

-  a  practical  sense,  neai^y  universal.     The  legislat^ti^- 


Ir  M 


M 


t         1 


1     1 

f 

i 

1 

1 

1 '  '* 

I:! 

56        BKITISII  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    part  hi.  •  on.  iii. 


i!  ! 


Ji!    ; 


ued  to  encourage  by  law  tlie  religion  jirofessed  by  the  major- 
ity of  the  inhabitants,  but  it  no  longer  decided  controversies 
on  opinions;  and  no  synod  was  ever  again  convened.  The 
new  charter  government  of  Massachusetts  differed  from  that 
of  tlie  royal  provinces  in  nothing  but  the  council.  In  the  royal 
colonies,  tliat  body  was  appointed  by  the  king;  in  Massachu- 
setts, it  was,  in  the  first  instance,  appointed  by  the  king,  and 
was  ever  after  elected,  in  joint  ballot,  by  the  members  of  the 
council  and  the  representatives  of  the  pe(5ple,  subject  to  a  neg- 
ative from  the  governor.  As  the  councillors,  like  the  senators 
of  Lycurgus,  were  twenty-eight  in  number,  they  generally,  by 
their  own  vote,  succeeded  in  effecting  their  own  re-election ; 
and,  instead  of  being,  as  elsewhere,  a  greedy  oligarchy,  were 
famed  for  their  unoffending  respectability. 

The  territory  of  IMasrachusetts  Avas  by  the  charter  vastly 
enlarged.     On  the  south,  it  embraced  Plymouth  colony  and 
the  Elizal)eth  islands;  on  the  e.ist,  Maine,  Nova  Scotia,  and 
all  the  lands  between  them ;  on  the  north,  it  extended  to  the 
St.  LaAvrence— the  fatal  gift  of  a  wilderness,  for  whose  conquest 
and  defence  Massachusetts  expended  more  treasure  and  lost 
more  of  her  sons,  than  all  the  English  continental  colonies  beside. 
New  IIami'shike  became  henceforward  a  royal  jirovince. 
Its  inhal)itant3  had,  in  1680,  assembled  in  convention  to  insti- 
tute government  for  themselves;  in  1090,  at  their  second  ses- 
sion, they  resolved  to  unite,  and  did  actually  unite,  with  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  and  l)oth  colonies  desired  that  the  union  might  be 
permanent.     Ihit  England  held  itself  bound  by  no  previous 
compact  to  cojiecde  to  New  Hamixsliire  any  charter  whatever. 
The  right  to  the  soil,  which  Samuel  Allen,  of  London,  had 
purchased  of  Mason,  was  recognised  as  valid ;  and  Allen  him- 
self received  the  royal  commission  to  govern  a  people  whose 
territory,  including  the  I'arnv   they  had  redeemed  from  the 
wilderness,  lie  claimed  as  his  own.     His  son-in-law.  Usher,  of 
Boston,  formerly  an  adiiercut  of  Andros  and  a  great  specula- 
tor in  lands,  was  appointed  lieutenant-governor.     The  English 
revolution  of  Ifls.S  valued  the  uncertain  claims  of  an  English 
merchant  more  than  the  liberties  of  a  province.     Indeed,'that 
revolution  loved  not  lil)ertv',but  privilege,  and  respected  popu- 
lar lil)erty  only  where  it  had  the  sanction  of  a  vested  right. 


1602. 


NEW   IIAMPSniKE  AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION". 


57 

In  August,  inf>2.  tlie  new  government  for  New  Hampshire 
was  organized  l.j  (Jslier.     The  civil  liistory  of  that  colonv,  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  is  a  series  of  lawsuits  about  laud     Com 
plaints  against  Usher  were  met  hy  counter  complaints,  till,  iu 
lOJJ,  New  Hampshire  was  placed,  with  Massachusetts,  under 
the  goveniuient  of  Eellomont;  and  a  judiciary,  composed  of 
men  attached  to  the  colony,  was  instituted.     Then,  and  for 
years  afterward,  followed  scenes  of  confusion:  trials  in  the 
colonial  courts,  resulting  always  in  verdicts  against  the  pre- 
tended proprietary ;  appeals  to  the  English  monarch  in  c(mn- 
cil;  papers  withheld;  records  of  the  court  under  Craniield 
destroyed;  orders  from  the  lords  of  trade  and  the  crown  disre- 
garded by  a  succession  of  inilexible  juries;  a  compromise  pro- 
posed, and  rendered  of  no  avail  by  the  death  of  one  of  the  par- 
ties; an  Iiidian  deed  manufactured  to  protect  the  cultivators  of 
hesoi  ;  till,m     715  the  heh.  of  the  proprietary  abandoned 
their  claim  m  despair.     The  yeomamy  of  New  Hampshire 
gamed  quie  possession  of  the  land  which  their  labor  liad  ren- 
dered valual)le.     The  waste  domain  reverted  to  the  crown      A 
proprietary,  sustained  by  the  crown,  claimed   the   people  of 
i^ew  Hampshire  as  his  tenants;  and  they  made  themselves 
freeholdei-s.  _  In  1 715,  New  Hampshire  had  nine  thousand  five 
hundml  white  inhabitants  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  slaves 
Its  trade  in  lumber  and  fish  was  of  the  annual  value  of  thiz^; 
thousand  pounds.  ^ 

The  ncmination  of  the  first  officers  for  Massachusetts  under 
the  charter,  m  1001,  was  committed  to  Increase  Mather  As 
governor  he  proposed  Sir  Willian.  Phips,  a  native  of  New 
England  a  well-meaning  lover  of  his  country,  of  a  dull  intel- 
lect, headstrong,  and  with  a  reason  so  feeble  that  in  politics  he 
knew  nothing  of  general  principles,  in  religion  was  given  to 
superstition  Accustomed  from  boyhood  to  the  axe^md  the 
oar,  he  was  di.tmguished  only  for  his  wealth,  acquired  l>y  rais- 
ing treasures  from  a  Spanish  .vreck  .vith  the  divL.-bell  iSs 
partnersin  the  enterprise  gained  hhn  the  honor  of  kni^lit- 

hii  on "  rr  •  ^"'^ ""  ^^"^ '' ''''  ^-^^'^^^•--  -i-"«i^  ^i^ft 

C^    \    ^     n  '"''"'"'"  "^  '^''  ™^^^^*^'^-«-     Intercession  had 
been  made  by  Cotton  Mather  for  the  adv 


Stoughtoi 


h  a  man 


ancement  of  WiUiam 
of  cold  affections,  proud,  self-willed,  and 


I  >i 


i 


til 


I 


58        HHITISII  AMKUIOA  FKOM  loss  TO  174H. 


I'AitT  III.;  on.  in. 


covotous  oi"  (listiiictioii.      11, ;   Imd  actt'd  under  ,] 


iiiioH   II.  as 


(Ifpiitv  |)ivsi<lciit ;  a  lit,  tool  for  hucIi  a  kiIl^^  joinin^r  j,,  a||  "tl.. 
iiiisciirriaps  ..f  tlic  latr  j^-ovcrimiciit."  The  |u«o|.lr  liad  rejected 
liiiii  ill  tlu'ir  eleetioii  of  jud^vs,  j^'iviiifj;  liiiii  not  a,  vote.  Vii-ld- 
in^r  to  the  .  jiitst  w'  Ids  son,  Inereaso  Mai  Iter  assi^Mied  to 
ic'C!  of  deputy  ^n.venior.     "  Tho  t\vi>ntv-ei.dit 


Stouy-litOTi  tlic  oil 


.V-ei^r| 
overy  man  of  Ihonj. 


IL'H. 


nsMistantrt,  w  lio  aro  tlio  jj;overnor\M  eouncil, 
VToti"  the  ap'iit,  "is  a  friend  to  tlie  interests  of  tlie  <'lmr<'l._. 
"Thotiiuo  for  favor  is  eoine,"  exulted  (\.tt,on  Maliier;  "yea, 
till)  set.  time  is  eonie.     Insteiul  of  my  bein^^  made  a  saeriliee  t(i 

(several  related  to  me,  and 
aiiioii"'  (he  eouueil. 


wieked  rulers,  my  fatlier-iiidiiw,  witl 
Heveial   hrelhren  of  my  own  ehureli,  an 
The  ii'( 


overnor  (»t  the  provmee  is  not  my  oneiiiv,  hut  one  \vl 


hapti/.ed,  and  one  of  mv  own  lloek,  and 


one  of  my  dearest 


vvy,   hi'  wrestled  with 


I 

friends."     And,   utteriiifi:  a    midnight 
(Jod  to  awaken  the  ehurelies  to  some  remarkable  thin 
obtained  of  the   Lord  that  he  would  use  me,"  says  the Tn I 
ated  man,  "to  be  a  herald  of  his  kiiindom  now  approaehin 
and,  in  the  ^looni  of  the  w 


lorn 


"I 

'atu- 


1-1 ) 


inter  of  ICDi',  anionn:  a  people  do- 


spondino'  at   (he   loss  of  their  old   liberties,  tl 

against  (^iiebee,  tlu'  ravages  of  their  north-eastern  border  1 


leir  ill  siicecss 


eruel  and  wi'll-directed 


>v  a 


eneniv,  the  ruin  of  tl 


leir  eomnieree  by 


Freneh  eriiis^'i-s.  (he  loss  of  credit  by  the  debts  with  whieli  tl 


fruit 


nations  prevaileil. 


K'ss  and  eostly  war  overwhelmed  them,  tJie  wildest 


le 


imairi- 


Tl 


le 


cry  of  witeheraft  has  been  raised  by  the  priesthood 


rarely,  or  iu'\er,  except  when  free  thought  was  ad 


The  bold 


vanciuir. 


iiiipurer  was  sometimes  burnt  as  a  wizartl,  and 


some- 


times as  an  insurgent  against  the  established  faith.    In  Franei 
where  there  were  most  heretics,  there  were  most  conde 


tions  for  witchcraft. 


inna- 


S, 


In  Salem  village,  now  Da 


imuc 


1  r 


livers,  there  had  been  betw 


een 


so  bitter  that  it  had 


irris,  the  minister,  and  a  part  of  his  ])eoi)le,  a  strife 


even  attracted  the  attention  of  tl 


eral  court.     The  delusion  of  witchcraft  would 


le  <ren- 


give  o])portuni- 


ties  of  terrible  vengeance.     In  Fel)ruary,  I(;!»:>,  the  (lau<rhter 
ol  Parris,  a  child  oi  nine  yeai-s,  and  1 
than  twelve,  began  to  have  st 


lis  niece,  a  irirl  of  less 


range  caprice; 


read  Cotton  Mather's  J  look  of  i\leuiorable  Troxido 


lie  that  will 


nces  may 


Ifi92. 


HUPERSTITION   AND  FUEE  INQUIRY, 


69 


rciul  part  of  wluit  tlicso  children  HufTered;"  and  Titnbji,  a  lialf 
Indian,  lialf  nv^vo  fumalo  norvant  who  had  practiced  Home 
wihHncantations,  bein^^  betrayed  by  her  husband,  was  Kcour;L,'ed 
by  I'arris,  her  master,  into  confcissing  iierself  a  witeli.     The 
nu'niHterH  of  the  nei-liboHu.od  held  at  tlic  alMicted  lionso  aday 
of  fastino-  i,„d  prayer;  and  the  littk'  children  became  the  most 
conspicMonH  persona^res  in  Salem.     The  ambition  of  notoriety 
recruited  tiie  company  of  the  possessed.     11,ere  existed  no 
inotive  to  han-  Tituba:  she  was  saved  as  a  living  witness  to 
the  reality  .)f  witchcraft ;  and  Sarali  (Jood,  a  po.M-  woman  of  a 
melancholic  temprjrament,  was  the  first  person  selected  for  iic- 
(MisatK.n.    (^.tton  ^b,(hor,  who  had  placed  witches  ''alnong  the 
poor  and  \  ile  and  ra-ged  ben'n-ars  upon  earth,"  and  had  stTdced 
Jus  own  reputation  for  veracity  on  the  reality  of  witchcraft 
prayed  -for  a  good  issue."     As  the  dfair  piV.cee.led,  and  the 
accounts  of  the  uitnesses  appeared  as  if  taken  from  his  own 
writmgs,  his  boundless  vanity  gloried  in  "the  assault  of  the 
evil  im^yls  upon  the  country,  as  a  particular  detiance  unto 
bimselt        \  et  the  prosecution,  but  for  i^irris,  would  have  lan- 
guished.    Of  his  niece  ho  demanded  the  names  of  the  devil's 
instruments  who  bewitched  the  l)and  of  -the  afHicted  "  -md 
then  became  at  onee  informer  and  witness.     In  those'  days 
there  was  no  prosecuting  ollicer;  and  Parris  was  at  hand  tJ 
question  his  Indian  servants  ami  others,  himself  promptino- 
their  answers  and  acting  as  recorder  to  the  magistiutes      The 
recollection  of  the  old  controversy  in  the  parish  could  not  be 
fo.gotten;  and  Parns,  who,  fr<mi  personal  malice  as  well  as 
>  nid  x.d  -stilled  the  accusations  of  some  "-such  is  the  test  - 
;nony  of    he  people  of  his  own  village-and  at  the  same  time 
vigilantly  pron.oted  the  accusation  of  others,"  was  "the  be- 
ginner and  procurer  of  the  sore  afflictions  to  Salem  village  and 
';'  -""try."     Martha  Cory,  who  on  her  examination  in  to 
neetmg  house  before  a  throng,  with  a  iirm  spirit,  alone,  againsi 
tliem  al    denied  the  presence  of  M'itchcraft,  was,  in  .Alarch 
eemmut  ed  to  prison,     liebecca  Xnrse,  like4e,  a  wom^m  tj 
purest  hfo,  an  object  of  tlu.  special  hatred  of  PutIs  resisted 
«-  coniijany  ^accusers,  and  was  commir.ed.    And  CI     u 
;^;;  :'''Vf  ^^!1I"T^^}^'^^^  *'-  ^^--e,  made  the  pulpit 


rinff  \nth  i*^  fil-i'n.v  f  ■    \  •  ^        rr 

J,    .1111  ..,  raking  tor  his  text:  '-Ila^ 


^e  not  I  chosen  you 


i 


If;    i 


rf 


*: 


I 


il' 


1- 


11  'l 


H 

H  11 


ll..£ 


60        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  in88  TO  1748.    part  hi.;  en.  m. 

twelve,  and  one  of  you  is  a  devil  ? "  At  this,  Sarah  Cloyce, 
sister  to  Rebecca  Nurse,  rose  up  niid  left  the  uieetiiig-houso  ; 
and  she,  too,  was  cried  <»iit  upon  and  sent  to  prison. 

To  examine  Sarah  (Jloyce  and  Elizahcth  I'roctor,  the  depu- 
ty governor  and  iivo  other  magistrates  went  j)roinptly  to  Sa- 
lem.^  It  was  a  great  day;  several  nunisters  were  present. 
Parris  officiated ;  and,  by  his  own  record,  it  is  plain  that  he 
himself  elicited  every  accusation.     His  first  witness,  John,  the 
Indian  servant,  husl)and  to  Titul.a,  was  rebuked  by  Sarah 
Cloyce,  as  a  grievous  liar.     Abigail  AVillianis,  the  niece  to 
Parris,  was  at  hand  with  her  tales:  tlie  prisoner  had  been  at 
the  witches'  sacrament.     Stnick  with  horror,  Sarah  Cloyce 
asked  for  water,  and  sank  down  "in  a  dying,  fainting  lit." 
"  Her  spirit,"  .sjiouted  the  band  of  the  atHicted,  « is  gone  to 
prison  to  her  sister  Nurse."     Against  Elizal)et]i  Proctor,  the 
niece  of  Parris  tohl  stories  yet  more  foolisli  than  false :  the 
prisoner  had  invited  her  to  sign  the  devil's  book.     "Dear 
child,"  exclaimed  the  accused  in  her  agony,  "  it  is  not  so. 
There  is  another  judgment,  dear  child;"  and  her  acctisers, 
turning  toward  her  husband,  declared  that  he,  too,  was  a  wiz- 
ard.    All  three  were  committed.     Examinations  and  connuit- 
ments  multiplied.     Gilep  Cory,  a  stul    ,)rn  old  man  of  more 
than  fourscore  years,  could  not  esc-  .c  the  malice  of  his  min- 
ister and  of  neighbors  with  whom  l.o  had  quarrelled.    Edward 
Bishop,  a  farmer,  cured  the  Indian  servant  of  a  tit  by  flogging 
him ;  he  declared,  moreover,  his  belief  that  he  could,  in^like 
manner,  cure  the  whole  company  of  the  afflicted,  and,  for  his 
skepticism,  found  himself  and  his  wife  in  prison.    Mary  Easty, 
of  Topsfield,  another  sister  of  Rebecca  Nurse— a  woman  of 
singular  gentleness  and  force  of  character,  deeply  religious, 
yet  uninfected  by  superstition— was  torn  from  her  children 
and  sent  to  jail.     Pan-is  had  a  rival  in  George  Burroughs,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard  college,  who,  having  fonuerly  preached 
in  Salem  village,  had  had  friends  there  desirous  of  his  settle- 
ment.    He,  too,  a  skeptic  in  witchcraft,  was,  in  May,  accused 
and  committed.     Tims  far,  there  had  been  no  success  in  ob- 
taining confessions,  though  earnestly  solicited.     It  had  been 
hinted  that  confessing  was  tlie  avenue  to  safety.     At  last,  De- 
liverrnce  Ilobbs  owned  everything  that  was  asked  of  her,  and 


1692 


SUPEnSTITION  AND  FKEE  INQUIKY. 


61 


was  left  iniluirmcd.     The  f^allows  wa.s  to  I,e  «et  up  not  for  pro- 
fessod  witches,  but  for  tlioae  wlio  rebuked  the  delunion. 

Siuiou   liradstreet,  f!-e  goremor  of   the  people's  choice 
deemed  the  evidence  iK^nWc-ent  ground  of  guilt.     On  Satur- 
day, the  fourteen^}!  .>f  M.7,  the  new  charter  and  the  royal 
governor  arrived  in  •  ->  r,,,,      On  the  next  Jiroiulay,  the  char- 
ter wan  published;  mC      13  parishioner  of  Cotton  Mather, 
with  the  royal  coui  -3il,  v    .  installed  in  olKce.     Immediately  a 
court  of  oyer  and  I-Mnuncrwas  instituted  by  ordinance,  and 
tlie  positive,  overbearing  Stoughton  appointed  by  the  governor 
and  council  its  chief  judge,  with  Sewall  and  Wait  Winthrop 
two  feebler  men,  as  his  associates  :  by  the  second  of  J...u>  the 
court  was  in  session  at  Salem,  making  its  first  experiment  on 
l.ridget  Eishop,  a  p.jor  and  friendless  old  woman.     Tiie  fact 
of  the  witchcraft  was  assumed  as  "  notonous '' :  to  lix  it  on  the 
prisoner,  Samuel  Parris,  who  had  examined  her  before  her 
commitment,  was  the  principal  witness  to  her  power  of  intlict- 
mg  torture;  he  had  seen  it  exercised.     Deliverance  llobbs 
had  been  whip,)ed  with  iron  rods  by  her  spectre;  neigliuors, 
^dio  had  fiuarrelled  witli  her,  M-ero  willing  to  lay  their  little 
Ills  to  her  charge;  the  poor  creature  had  a  preternatural  ex- 
crescence in  her  licsli;  "she  gave  a  look  toward  the  great  and 
spacious  ineeting-house  of  Salem  "-it  is  Cotton  Mather  M'ho 
records  this-"  and  immediately  a  diL^non,  invisil,ly  entering 
the  house,  tore  down  a  part  of  it."     She  was  a  witch  oy  the 
rales  and  precedents  of  Keeble  and  Sir  Matthew  Hale  of  Per- 
kins ami  Bernard,  of  Baxter  and  Cotton  Mather;  and,  on  the 
tenth  ot  June,  protesting  her  innocence,  she  was  hanged.     Of 
the  magistrates  at  that  time,  not  one  held  office  by  the  suffrage 
of  the  people:  tlie  tribunal,  essentially  despotic  in  its  oriofn 
as  in  Its  character,  had  no  sanction  but  an  extraordinary  Snd 
an  Illegal  commission;  and  Stoughton,  the  chief  judge,  a  par- 

setts  Ihe  responsibihty  of  the  tragedy,  far  from  attachhig 
to  the  people  of  tlie  colony,  rests  ^vith  the  very  few,  hardly 
five  or  srx,in  whose  hands  the  transition  state  of  the  govern 

j;;  o  fnl  '^  ^^f  7'.""l""ited  influence.  Into  the  interior 
ot  the  colony  the  delusion  did  not  spread. 

The  house  of  representatives,  which  assembled  iu  June, 


m 

i 

q 

'«  ,  i: 

• '  '  1 

V 

*1 

1 

IS^'^I 

'.* 

i; 

i' 


II 


62        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1743.    part  hi. 


en.  III. 


1692,  was  busy  with  its  griefs  at  the  abridgment  of  the  old 
colonial  liberties.  Incre.vse  Mather,  the  agent,  was  heard  in  his 
own  defence ;  and  at  last  Bond,  the  speaker,  in  the  name  of 
the  honse,  tardily  and  langnidly  thanked  hiin  for  his  faithful 
and  unwearied  exertions.  No  recompense  was  voted.  "  I  seek 
not  yours,  but  you,"  said  Increase  Mather ;  "  I  am  willing  to 
wait  for  recompense  in  another  world ; "  and  the  general  court, 
after  prolonging  the  validity  of  the  old  laws,  adjourned  to 
October. 

But  Phips  and  his  council  had  not  looked  to  the  general 
court  for  directions ;  they  turned  to  the  ministers  of  Boston 
and  Charlestown ;  and  from  them,  by  the  hand  of  Cotton 
Mather,  they  received  gratitude  for  their  sedulous  endeavors 
to  defeat  the  abominable  witchcrafts ;  prayer  that  the  discov- 
ery might  be  perfected ;  a  caution  against  haste  and  siiectral 
evidence ;  a  hint  to  affront  the  devil,  and  give  him  tlie  lie,  by 
condenming  none  on  his  testimony  alone ;  while  the  uii-eful 
advice  was  added :  "  Wg  recommend  the  speedy  and  vigorous 
prosecution  of  such  as  have  rendered  themselves  obnoxious." 
The  willing  court,  at  its  next  session,  condemned  live  women, 
all  of  blameless  lives,  all  declaring  their  innocence.   Four  were 
convicted  easily  enough;    Rebecca  Nurse  was    at   first   ac- 
quitted.    "  The  honored  court  was  pleased  to  object  against 
the  verdict ; "  and,  as  she  h.ad  said  of  tlie  confessing  mtnesses, 
"  They  r.sed  to  come  among  us,"  meaning  that  they  had  been 
prisoners  together,  Stoughton  interpreted  the  words  as  of  a 
witch  festival.      The   jury   withdrew,  and  could  as  yet  not 
agree ;  but,  as  the  prisoner,  who  was  hard  of  hearing  and  full 
of  grief,  made  no  explanation,  they  no  longer  refused  to  find 
her  guilty.     Hardly  was  the  verdict  rendered  before  the  fore- 
man made  a  statement  of  the  ground  of  her  condemnation,  and 
she  sent  her  declaration  to  the  court  in  reply.     The  governor, 
who  'limself  was  not  unmerciful,  saw  reason  to  grant  a  re- 
prie^M.    but  Parris  had  preached  against  Rebecca  Nurse,  and 
prayed  against  Iier;  Lad  induced  "the  afiiicted"  to  ^vitness 
against  her ;  had  caused  her  sisters  to  be  imprisoned  for  their 
honorable  symj)athy.    She  must  perish,  or  the  delusion  was  un- 
veiled ;  iuid  the  governor  recalled  the  reprieve.     On  the  next 
communion  day  she  was  taken  in  chains  to  the  meeting-] louse, 


1092. 


SUPERSTITION   AND  FREE   INQUIRY. 


l-' 


63 

to  be  fcmially  excommnnicatcd  by  Noyes,  Iier  minister ;  and 
was^liaagtHl  witli  tlie  rest.     "  You  are  a  witch  ;  you  know  you 
are,"  said  Noyes  to  Sarah  Good,  urging  a  ec^ufessiou.     "  You 
are  a  liar,"  replied  tlie  poor  woman ;  "  and,  if  you  take  my  life 
God  will  give  you  blood  to  drink."  ' 

Confessions  rose  in  importance.     "  Some,  not  afflicted  be- 
fore confession,  were  so  presently  after  it."     The  jails  were 
filled,  for  fresh  criminations  were  needed  to  confirm  tlie  con- 
fessions.    "Some,  by  these  their  accusations  of  othrrs"— I 
quote  the  cautious  apologist  Hale— "  hoped  to  gain  t'r.ie  and 
get  favor  from  the  nilers."     "  Some,  mider  the  temptation" 
of  promises  of  favor  beyond  what  the  rulers  themselves  had 
given  ground  for,  "regarded  not  as  they  should  what  became 
of  others,  so  that  they  could  thereby  serve  their  own  turns  " 
If  the  confessions  wert  contradictory,  if  witnesses  uttered  ob- 
vious falsehoods,  "the  devil,"  the  judges  avouM  say,  "takes 
away  their  memory,  ai.d  imposes  on  their  brain."     And  who 
now  would  dare  to  be  skeptical  ?  who  would  disbelieve  confes- 
sors?   Besides,  there  were  other  cA-idences.     A  callous  spot 
was  the  mark  of  the  devil:  did  age  or  amazement  refuse  to 
shed  tears;  had  threats  after  a  quarrel  been  followed  by  the 
death  of  CO  tie  or  other  harm ;  did  rm  error  occur  in  repeatino- 
tlie  Lords  prayer;  were  deeds  of  great  physical  strength  pe?- 
formed— these  all  were  signs  of  witchcraft. 

On  a  new  session,  in  August,  six  were  arraigned,  and  all 
were  convicted.  Jchn  Willard  had,  as  an  officer,  be.m  em- 
ployed to  arrest  the  suspected  witches.  Perceiving  the  hypoc- 
risy, he  declined  the  service.  The  afilicted  immediately  de- 
nc-nced  hi.n,  and  he  was  seized,  con  victor^,  and  hanged. 

At  the  trial  of  George  Bnrnmghs,  the  bewitched  persons 
pretended  to  be  dumb.  "  Who  hinder,  these  witnesses,"  said 
otoughtcn,  " frcni  giviivn.  their  testimonies  /"  " I  su  )po^  the 
devil,  answered  Ihirroughs.  "How  comes  the  devil"  re- 
torted the  chief  judge,  "  so  loath  t.  have  anv  testimony  borne 
against  you  ?  "and  the  question  was  elfeerive.  Besides.^he  had 
given  proofs  of  great,  if  not  preternaturd,  muscular  stren-^th 
Cot  on  A  atlier  calls  the  evidence  "  enough : "  the  jur.-  .,.?e  a 
venhct  of  guilty.  .».-'* 

John  Procter,  who  foresaw  his  doom,  had  sent  an  earnest 


I     i 


f 


t     .!     !     I 


04        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.     pautiii.;  en.  lu. 

petition  to  Cotton  Mather  and  the  ministers.  Among  tlie  wit- 
nesses against  liim  Avere  some  who  had  made  no  confessions 
till  after  torture.  "Tliey  liave  already  nndoiie  us  in  our 
estates,  and  that  will  not  serve  their  turns  without  our  inno- 
cent hlood  ; "  and  lie  begged  for  a  trial  in  Boston,  or,  at  least, 
for  a  change  of  magistrates.  His  entreaties  were  vain,  as  also 
his  ])rayers,  after  condenmation,  for  a  respite. 

Among  the  witnesses  against  Martha  Carvier,  the  mother 
saw  her  own  children.  Her  two  sons  refused  to  perjure  them- 
selves till  they  had  been  tied  neck  and  heels  so  long  that  the 
blood  was  ready  to  gush  from  them.  The  confession  of  her 
daughter,  a  child  of  seven  years  old,  is  still  preserved. 

The  aged  .lac^obs  was  condemned,  in  part,  by  the  evidence 
of  Margaret  .Jacobs,  his  granddaughter.  Terriiied  by  a 
womided  conscience,  she  confessed  the  whole  tnith  before 
the  magistrates,  who  coniined  her  for  trial,  and  proceeded  to 
hang  her  grandfather. 

These  live  were  condemned  on  the  third,  and  hanged  on 
the  nineteenth  of  August ;  pregnancy  reprieved  Elizaljeth 
Procter.  To  hang  a  minister  as  a  witch  was  a  novelty ;  but 
Burroughs  denied  that  there  was,  or  could  be,  such  a  thing  as 
witchcraft,  in  the  current  sense.  On  the  ladder,  he  cleared  his 
innocence  by  an  earnest  speech,  repeating  the  Lord's  prayer 
composedly  and  exactly,  and  with  a  fervency  that  astonished. 
Cotton  Mather,  on  horsebach  among  the  crowd,  addressed  the 
people,  cavilling  at  the  ordination  of  Burroughs,  as  though  he 
had  been  no  true  minister,  insisting  on  his  guilt,  and  hinting 
that  the  de\il  could  sometimes  assume  the  appearance  of  an 
angel  of  light. 

Meantime,  the  confessions  of  the  witches  began  to  be 
directed  against  the  Anaba])tists.  i\[ary  Osgood  was  dipped 
by  the  devil.  The  court  still  had  work  to  do.  On  the  nintli, 
six  women  were  condemned ;  and  more  cotivictions  followed. 
Giles  Cory,  an  octogeiuirian,  seeing  that  all  who  denied  guilt 
were  convicted,  refused  to  plead,  and  was  pressed  to  death. 

On  the  twenty -second  of  Sej)tember,  eight  jxTSiins  were  led 
to  the  gallows.  Of  these,  feanu"4  Ward  well  had  confessed, 
and  was  safe  ;  but,  from  shame  and  p'Jiitence,  he  retracted  his 
confession  and  was  hanged,  not  for  witchcraft,  but  for  denying 


1692-1693.      SUPERSTITION  AND   FREE   INQUIRY.  rr 

witclici-aft.     Martha  Cory  was,   before   execution,  visited   in 
pnson  by  Parris,  tlie  two  deacons,  and  anotlier  nieml)er  of  liis 
cluirch      The  church  record  tells  tliat  she  "  imperiously  »  re- 
buke<l  her  destroyers,  and  '^they  pronounced  the  dreadful  sen- 
tence ot  excommunication  against  her."     In  the  calmness  ^^nth 
which  Mary  Easty  exposed  the  falsehood  of  those  who  had 
selected  from  her  family  so  many  victims,  she  joined  the  noblest 
foititude  and  sweetness  of  teu^per,  dignity,  and   resignation. 
l.ut  the  chief  judge  was  positive  that  all  had  been  done  n-<.htly 
and     was  veiy  impatient  in  hearing  anything  that  looked  an^ 
other  way."    -  There  hang  eight  firebrands  of  hell,"  said  ^yes 

dlowr^''''  ""^  ^''^''"'  ^''''"^'"^'  *""  ^^'"  ^'''^''''  ^^"^fe^i"g  on  the 

orJ!'l7!^^'""f^\^T''''  '^'^  ^''''  ^''''  '"^  ^^'^th  for  witch- 
craft, hfty-hve  had  been  tortured  or  terrified  into  penitent 
confessions.  With  accusat.ons,  confessions  increased ;  with  con- 
fessions, new  accusations.     Even  "the  generation  of  the  chil- 

nation.       The  jads  were  full.     One  hundred  and  fifty  prison- 
ers awaited  trial ;  two  hundred  moro  were  accused  or  suspected 
It  was  observed  that  no  one  of  the  condemned   confe^t 
witchcraft  had  been  hanged.     No  one  that  confessed,    nde- 
tractod  a  confession,  had  escaped  either  hanging  or  impiW 
ment  for  trial     No  one  of  the  condemned  who  assei.ed  nno- 
eonce,  even  where  one  of  the  witnesses  confessed  per]uiror 
he  foreman  of  the  jury  oAvned  the  error  of  the  verdict  'e    aied 
tl^e  gallows.     Favoritism  was  shown  in  listening  to  a  ^S^ 
which  were  turned  aside  fi.m  friends  or  partiS^ns.     If  f  Zn 
ogan  a  career  as  a  witch-hunter,  and,  becoming  convinced  of 
^  imposture,  declined  the  service,  he  was  accu^d  and  1^  ged 
Peison    accused,  who  has-   escaped  from  the  jurisdictioir  ir 
Massachusetts,  were  not  demanded.     Witnesses'  conv  c'  e     o 
perjury  were  cauti*  :,cd,  an  1  ivn-miftPrl  «';ii  i        ^""^'^^^'^^i  ^t 
lives  of  ctlie-.      Tl  J  P-"'"^^''*;  "^'"  ^''  """^^^^  'Way  the 

Novell:       '     '^'^'  '"^^  ^^'J'""'"^'^^  '^^  ^'-  «-t  Tuesday  in 

ni'^J^;^'^  Wednesd^in  October,  1092,  about  a  fort- 
u^-it  at.tr  tL'  .  M  hanging  of  eight  at  Salem,  the  rcDresc-t- 
.vc.  .>f_tho  ..^ony  ..sembled ;  and  the  peop  e  of  A^^r 

their  mimster  joinhi^with  them,  appearelnith  their  ivmcl^ 

>0L.    II, — 5 


m 


f 


)  M 


I 


It 


QQ        BKITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    paet  hi.;  cii.  hi. 

strance  against  tlie  doings  of  the  witch  tribunals.  Of  the  dis- 
cussions that  ensued  no  record  is  preserved ;  we  know  only  the 
issue.  The  general  court  ordered  by  bill  a  convocation  of 
ministers,  that  the  people  might  be  led  in  the  right  way  as  to 
the  witchcraft.  It  adopted  what  King  William  rejected — the 
English  law,  word  for  word ;  but  they  abrogated  the  special 
court,  established  a  tribunal  by  statute,  and  delayed  its  opening 
till  Jainiary  of  the  following  year.  This  mterval  gave  the 
public  mind  securif  v  and  freedom ;  and  though  Phips  still  con- 
ferred the  place  of  ^'hief  judge  on  Stoughton,  yet  jurors  acted 
independently.  When,  in  January,  1693,  the  court  met  at 
Salem,  six  women  of  Andover,  renouncing  their  confessions, 
treated  the  witchcraft  but  as  something  so  called,  uhe  bewil- 
dered but  as  "  seemingly  afflicted."  A  memorial  of  like  tenor 
came  from  the  inhabitants  of  Andover. 

Of  the  presentments,  the  grand  jury  dismissed  more  than 
half ;  and  of  the  twenty-six  against  whom  bills  were  found 
through  the  testimony  on  which  othei-s  had  been  condemned, 
verdicts  of  acquittal  followed.  Three  who,  for  special  reasons, 
had  been  convicted,  one  being  a  wife,  whose  testimony  had 
sent  her  husl)and  to  the  gallows  and  whose  co'ifession  was  now 
used  against  herself,  were  reprieved,  and  soon  set  free. 

The  party  of  superstition  desired  one  conviction.  The  vic- 
tim selected  was  Sarah  Daston,  a  woman  of  eighty  years  ol 
who  for  twenty  years  had  had  the  re])utation  oi  being  a  wiic 
if  ever  there  were  a  witch  in  the  world.  In  February,  1093, 
in  the  presence  of  a  throng,  the  ^rial  went  forwaixi  at  Charles- 
town  ;  but  the  common  mind  was  disenthralled,  and  asserted 
itself  by  a  verdict  of  acquittal,. 

The  people  of  Salem  village  drove  Parris  from  the  place ; 
Noyes  regained  favor  only  by  a  full  confession  and  consecrat- 
ing the  remainder  of  his  life  to  deeds  of  mercy.  Sewall,  one 
of  the  judges,  by  rising  in  his  pew  in  the  (J  Id  South  meeting- 
house on  a  fast  day  and  reading  to  tlie  whole  congregation  a 
paper  in  which  he  bewailed  his  great  olfence,  recovered  pub- 
lic esteem.  Stoughton  never  repented.  The  diary  of  (\)tton 
Matli'T  proves  that  he,  wlio  had  sought  the  foundation  of  faith 
in  t  of  wonders,  himself  "had  tcnq)tations  to  atheism,  and 
to  the  abandonment  of  all  religion  us  a  mere  delusion." 


"-'? 


•i 
-J 


1692-1702.    BILL  OF  EIGUTS  OF  MASSACUUSETTS.  ^T 

The  mind  of  New  England  wag  more  wise.     It  never  wa- 
vered in  its  faith;  but,  emplojdng  a  caiuious  spirit  of  search 
elunmating  error,  rejecting  superstition  as  tending  to  eowardi-e 
and  submission,  clierishing  rehgion  aa  the  source  of  courage 
and  of  freedom,  it  refused  to  separate  beh'ef  and  reason     Some 
asserted  God  to  be  the  true  being,  tlie  devil  to  be  but  a  nonen- 
tity  and  disobedience  to  God  to  be  the  only  possible  compact 
with  hatau;  others,  though  chnging  to  the  letter  of  the  Bible 
showed  the  insufficiency  of  all  evidence  for  the  conviction  of  a 
witch.    Men  tnisted  more  to  observation  and  analysis ;  and  this 
philosophy  was  analogous  to  the  change  in  their  civil  condition  • 
hberty,  m  Massachusetts,  was  defended  by  asserting  the  sanctitv 
of  compact,  and  the  mherent  right  of  the  colony  to  all  En-lish 
hberties.  ^ 

On  the  organization  of  the  new  government,  in  1C92,  its 
hrst  body  of  representatives,  with  the  consent  of  the  council 
and  the  royal  governor,  enacted  that  "the  rights  and  Hberties 
of  the  people  shaU  be  hm.ly  and  strictly  holden  and  obseiwed  " 
nat    no  aid,  tax,  tallage,  assessment,  custom,  loan,  benevo- 
lence, or  imposition  whatsover,  shall  be  laid,  assessed,  imposed 
or  le^-led  on  any  of  their  majesties'  subjects,  or  their  estates' 
on  any  e^lor  or  pretence  whatsoever,  but  by  the  act  and  con- 
sent of  the  governor,  council,  and  representatives  of  the  peo- 
ple assemoled  in  general  court."     -AH  trials  shall  be  bv  the 
verdict  of  twelve  men,  peers  or  equals,  and  of  the  neighbor- 
hood and  m  the  county  or  shire,  where  the  fact  shall  arise  " 

The  same  legislature,  in  November,  1092,  renewed  the"  in- 
stitution of  towns  the  glory  and  the  strength  of  New  Eng- 

r  t"of  M  ft  ^'"'  ''  ^^^^--'--««^  -ith  Maine,  as  a 
r  rt  of  Massachusetts,  was  recognised  as  divided  into  little 
territories,  each  of  which,  for  its  internal  purposes,  constituted 
a  separate  integral  democracy,  free  from  supervision ;  having 
poMjr  to  elect  annually  its  own  officers;  to  hold  aieetings  of 

any  subject  of  pnbh.,  interest;  to  elect,  and,  if  it  pleased,  ?o 
.nstiuctitsrepi-oseruatives;  to  raise,  appropriate,  and  expend 
money  for  the  suppor.  of  the  ministry,  of  schools  of  the  poo' 
^1  for  .lefraying  other  .     ossary  expenses  within  the  town 
lioj  allots  tuterward  deplored  that  the  law,  which  conlirmed 


^;| 


f     i.y. 


68        BRITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    part  m. 


on,  in. 


t    ! 


I«        !' ;  il'^" 


these  liberties,  received  the  unconscious  sanction  of  William 
III.  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island  had 
similar  regulations ;  so  that  all  New  England  was  an  aggregate 
of  municipal  democracies. 

The  late  agent,  Elisha  Cooko,  a  patriot  never  willing  to 
submit  to  the  acts  of  trade,  never  consenting  to  the  least  dimi- 
nution of  freedom,  the  frank,  sincere,  persistent  friend  of 
popular  power,  proposed,  as  the  laAvful  mode  of  controlling 
the  officers  appointed  by  the  king,  never  to  establish  a  iixed 
salary  for  any  one  of  them,  to  perpetuate  no  public  revenue. 
This  advice  was  as  old  as  the  charter.  The  legislature,  con- 
forming to  it,  refused  from  the  beginning  to  vote  a  permanent 
establishment,  and  left  the  king's  governor  dependent  on  their 
annual  grants.  Phips,  the  first  royal  governor  in  Massachu- 
setts, was  the  first  to  complain  that  "  no  salary  was  allowed  or 
was  intended,"  and  was  the  first  to  solicit  the  interference  of 
the  king  for  relief. 

His  successor,  the  earl  of  Belloraont,  found  himself  equally 
dependent  on  the  benevolence  of  the  assembly.  The  same 
policy  was  sure  to  be  followed,  when,  on  the  death  of  Bello- 
mont,  the  colony  had  the  grief  of  receiving  as  its  governor, 
under  a  commission  that  included  New  Hampshire,  its  own 
apostate  son,  Joseph  Dudley,  the  great  supporter  of  Andros, 
"  the  wolf"  whom  the  patriots  of  Boston  had  "seized  by  the 
ears,"  whom  the  people  had  insisted  on  keeping  "  in  the  jail," 
and  who,  for  twenty  weeks,  had  l)een  held  in  prison,  or,  as  he 
termed  it,  had  been  "  buried  alive."  He  obtained  the  place 
by  the  request  of  Cotton  Mather,  who  at  that  time  continued 
to  be  mistaken  in  England  for  the  interpreter  of  the  general 
wish  of  the  ministers. 

The  profoundly  selfish  Dudley  possessed  pnidence  and  the 
inferior  virtues,  but  he  loved  neither  freedom  nor  his  native 
land.  In  1702,  on  meeting  his  first  asseml)ly,  he  gave  "  in- 
stances of  his  remem1)ering  tlie  old  quarrel,  and  the  jjcople,  on 
their  parts,  resolved  never  to  forget  it."  "All  his  ingenuity 
could  not  stem  the  cun-ent  of  their  prejudice  against  him."  A 
stated  salary  was  demanded  for  the  governor.  "  As  to  settling 
a  salary  for  the  goveraor."  replied  the  house,  "  it  is  altogethe; 
new  to  us ;  nor  can  we  think  it  agreeable  to  our  present  con- 


1702-1703.    BILL  OF  RIGOp  OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  gg 

Ltitution ;  but  we  sliall  be  ready  to  do  what  may  bo  proper  for 
Ins  support."  "  This  country,"  wrote  his  son,  "  will  never  be 
worth  living  in,  for  lawyers  and  gentlemen,  till  the  charter  is 
taken  away."  Failing  to  win  from  the  legislature  concessions 
to  the  royal  prerogative,  Dudley  became  the  active  opponent 
of  tne  chartered  liberties  of  New  England,  endeavoring  to 
effect  their  overthrow  and  the  establishment  of  a  general  gov- 
enunent  as  hi  the  days  of  Andros. 

"  Even  many  of  the  councilloi-s  are  commonwealth's  men," 
wrote  Dudley,  in  1702 ;  and  in  September  of  the  follo^ving 
year,  when  the  royal  recpiisition  for  an  established  salary  had 
once  more  been  fruitlessly  made,  he  urged  the  ministry  to 
change  the  provincial  charter.     The  choice  of  the  people  for 
counciUors  he  described  to  the  board  of  trade  as  falling  on 
"  persons  of  less  affection  to  the  strict  dependence  of  these 
governments  on  the  crown ;  till  the  queen,"  said  he,  "  appohits 
the  council,  nothing  will  go  well."     It  was  not  an  Enghshman 
\yho  proprosed  this  abridgment  of  charter  privileges,  bui  a  na- 
tive of  JVIassachusetts,  son  of  one  of  its  earhest  magistrates 
himself  first  introduced  to  public  affairs  by  the  favor  of  its 
people. 


:i. 


A! 


lii  ^' 


i! 


70         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    paktiii.;  cri.  iv. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


i 


PAELIAMENT  AJJTO   THE  COLONIES. 

DuRiNCr  tlie  long  contests  in  England,  popular  liberty  had 
thriven  vigorously  in  its  colonies,  like  the  tree  by  the  rivers 
of  water,  that  grows  in  the  night-time,  while  they  who  gave 
leave  to  plant  it  were  sleeping.     A  complete  system  of  equal 
representative  govenunent  had  been  developed,  and  had  been 
enjoyed  with  exact  regularity.     In  the  reign  of  each  one  of 
the  Stuarts,  England  was  left  for  many  years  without  a  parlia- 
ment.    From  the  time  that  Southampton  and  Sandys  estab- 
lished assemblies  in  Virginia,  their  succession  was  maintained 
by  an  unbroken  usage.     So  it  was  in  Maryland,  and  so  too  in 
the  Carolinas,  in  Pennsylvania,  in  Delaware,  without  inter- 
ruption.    In  New  England,  the  legislatures  of  all  the  chief 
colonies  met  twice  a  year  until  the  reign  of  James  II.     The 
spirit  of  liberty  had  been  one  and  the  same  in  Englishmen  at 
homo  and  Englishmen  in  the  colonies,  with  this  momentous 
difference:  the  revolution  in  England  had  been  an  adjustment 
of  the  old  institutions  of  monarchy,  prelacy,  and  the  peerage ; 
in  the  colonies  there  was  neither  prelate  nor  peer,  and  the 
monarch  was  kept  aloof  by  an  ocean.     The  popular  element 
which  had  been  baffled  in  the  older  country  existed  in  Amer- 
ica without  a  master  or  a  rival. 

The  outline  of  the  still  distant  conflict  between  the  two 
was  already  defined.  The  parliament,  which  had  made  itself 
supreme  hy  electing  a  king  and  regulating  the  descent  of  the 
British  crown  for  the  whole  extent  of  the  British  empire,  and 
had  confirmed  immutably  its  right  of  meeting  every  year,  held 
itself  to  be  "  absolute  and  unaccountable ; "  and  from  its  veiy 
nature  would  one  day  attempt  to  extend  its  milimited  legisla- 


1689-1702.       PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES, 


71 


tivc  eoverei^ty  over  every  part  of  the  British  domin:ons. 
Yet  it  repj-eseiited  not  so  much  the  Eritisli  peoj)lo  iia  tlio  Brit- 
ish anstocracy,  which  fonned  one  branch  of  i)arliarnent,  elect- 
ed very  many  members  of  tlie  second,  and  tlirough  that  second 
brancli  (iontrolled  the  monarchy. 

The  antagonism  between  an  imperial   parliament  which 
held  itself  snjjreme,  and  colonial  legislatures  which  claimed  to 
be  co-ordinate,  was  not  innnediately  manifested.     On  the  con- 
trary, the  action  of  England  Avas  the  model  after  which  the 
colonies  shaped  their  own  without  reproach.     The  revolution 
sanctioned  for  England  the  right  of  resisting  tyranny.    In  liice 
manner,  the  colonies  rose  with  one  mhid  to  assert  their  Eno-- 
lish  liberties,  the  three  royal  governments— ISTcw  York,  Xew 
Hampshire,  and  Virginia— rivalling  the  cluirtcred  ones  in  zeal. 
They  all  encouraged  each  other  to  assert  their  privileges,  as 
possessing  a  sanctity  which  tyranny  only  could  disregard,  and 
which  could  perish  only  by  destroying  allegiance  itself.     In 
England,  the  right  to  representation  was  never  again  to  be 
sepai-ated  from  the  power  of  taxation ;  the  colonies  ecpially 
sought  the  bulwark  for  their  liberties  and  their  j^eace  in  the 
exclusive  right  of  taxing  themselves. 

The  disfranchisement  of  dissenters  in  England,  and  the  still 
more  grievous  religious  intolerance  of  the  Anglican  church  in 
Ireland,  wrought  for  England  incalculable  evil,  and  brouo-]it 
the  weightiest  advantage  to  the  colonies,  in  most  of  which  the 
heartiest  welcome  and  the  brightest  career  awaited  alike  the 
Independents  and  Presbyterians. 

Iving  William,  having,  by  his  acceptance  of  the  British 
crown,  involved  England  in  a  desperate  struggle  with  the 
king  of  France,  had  for  his  great  aim  in  the  administration  of 
the  colonies  an  organization  by  which  their  united  resources 
could  be  made  available  in  war, 

James  II.  had  brought  to  the  throne  his  experience  of 
nearly  five-and-twcnty  years  as  an  American  proprietary,  and 
had  formed  a  thorough  system  of  colonial  government.  Six 
northern  culonieswere  consolidated  under  me  captain-general, 
who  was  invested  with  legislative  power,  checked  only  l)y  a 
onuncil  likewise  appoints  by  the  king.  This  arbitral^  sys- 
^>m,  which  was  to  have  been  extended  to  all,  appeared  to  prom- 


72        HRITISII  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    part  in. ;  on.  iv. 

iso  him  a  colonial  civil  list  and  revenue  at  lii.s  discrotl.)n ;  to 
make  his  semmts  directly  and  solely  dependent  on  himself; 
and,  by  uniting  so  many  colonies  under  one  military  chief,  to' 
erect  a  barrier  against  the  red  men,  and  against  the  French  in 
America. 

J)uring  the  th-ee  years  of  his  rule  he  pei-sisted  in  the  pur- 
pose of  reducing  "  the  independent  "  colonial  administrations; 
and,  with  promptness,  consistency,  and  determination,  employed 
the  prerogative  for  that  end.  The  letters-patent  of  Massachu- 
setts were  cancelled ;  those  of  Connecticut  and  Ehode  Island 
of  Maryland,  of  New  Jei-sey,  of  Carolina,  wei-e  to  be  annulled 
or  surrendered.  But  with  his  llight  from  England  the  system 
vanished  like  the  shadow  of  a  cloud,  having  no  root  in  the 
colonies,  nor  in  the  principle  of  the  English  revolution. 

In  February  lOS'J,  at  the  instance  of  Sir  George  Treby 
the  convention  which  made  William  III.  kmg voted  -that  the 
plantations  ought  to  be  secured  against  quo  warrantos  and  sur- 
renders, and  their  ancient  n'ghts  restored."  Ihit  the  clause  in 
their  behalf  did  not  reap])ear  in  later  proceedings ;  they  are 
not  named  in  the  declaration  of  rights ;  their  ojipression  by 
James  was  not  enumerated  as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  revolu- 
tion ;  and  Somers  would  not  include  the  Massachusetts  charter 
m  the  bill  for  restoring  corporations. 

The  first  soldiers  sent  to  America  after  the  revolution  were 
two  companies  which  were  ordered  to  New  York  in  1(589,  and 
seem  to  have  arrived  there  in  lf!l)l.  They  were  to  be  i)aid  out 
of  the  revenue  of  England,  till  i)rovision  should  be  made  for 
them  by  the  province.  One  hundred  pt.unds  were  sent  for 
presents  to  the  Indians.  This  arrangement  was  likewise  to  be 
transient ;  the  ministry  never  designed  to  make  the  defence  of 
Anierica  and  the  conduct  of  Indian  relations  a  direct  burden 
on  the  people  of  England. 

The  crown  had  no  funds  at  its  disposal  for  the  public  de- 
fence. The  conduct  of  a  war  required  union,  a  common  treas- 
ury, military  force,  and  a  central  will.  In  October  1092,  the 
sovereign  of  England  attempted  this  union  by  an  act  of  the 
prerogative ;  sending  to  each  colony  north  of  Carolina  a  requi- 
sition for  a  fixed  quota  of  money  and  of  men  for  the  defence 
of  New  York,  ''  the  outguard  of  his  majesty's  neighboring 


ni. ;  on.  IV. 

rotion ;  to 
1  liimsolf; 
y  chief,  U) 
French  in 

li  tlic  pur- 
istrations ; 
eni])l()ycd 
Masi^aclm- 
[lo  Island, 
i  aunullod 
10  system 
ot  iu  the 
11. 

fc  Treby, 
''  tluit  tlie 
i  and  sur- 
chuise  in 
they  are 
3Ssion  by 
10  revohi- 
s  charter 

ion  wore 

<>S1),  and 
])aid  out 
iiado  for 
sent  for 
ise  to  be 
fence  of 
burden 

iblic  de- 
3n  treas- 
(592,  the 
t  of  the 
a  requi- 
defence 
hboriug 


1089-1702.       PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES. 


78 


plantations  in  Anieriea."  This  is  memorable  as  the  first  form 
of  JJriti.sh  regulation  of  the  colonies  after  the  revdhifion  of 
1G88.  The  requisition  was  neglected,  ronnsylvania,  swayed 
by  the  society  of  Friends,  wa.s  steadfast  in  its  disobedience. 

Yet  England  insisted  that  the  colonists  should  "employ 
their  own  hands  and  jmrses  in  defence  of  their  own  estates, 
lives,  and  families;"  and,  in  l(\\)\,  when  two  more  ('om])anio8 
at  Now  Vorlv  were  placed  upon  the  English  establislinirut,  and 
when  artillery  and  ammuniti(tn  were  furnished  from  ''the 
king's  magazines,''  a  royal  mandatory  letter  prescribed  to  the 
several  colonies  the  (;xact  proportion  of  their  quotas.  '  Uit  the 
"order,  by  reason  oi  the  distinct  and  independent  govern- 
ments," was  "  very  uncertainly  complied  with."  The  governor 
of  N'ew  York  had  nothing  "  to  rely  on  for  the  defence  of  that 
frontier  but  the  four  C(  mi  panics  in  his  majesty's  pay  ";  while 
Massachusetts  urged  tli  f.  as  "all  were  equally  benefited,  each 
ought  to  give  a  reasonalio  aid." 

The  king  atcempte-l  a  more  efficient  method  of  admimster- 
ingtlie  colonies;  their  all'airs  were  taken  fr..m  committees  of 
the  privy  council ;  and,  in  May  IGOr,,  a  board  of  commission- 
ers for  trade  and  plantations,  consisting  of  the  chancellor,  the 
president  of  the  privy  council,  the  keeper  of  the  privy  seal,  the 
two  secretaries  of  state,  and  eight  special  commissioners,  was 
called  int.)  being.     To  William  IJIathwayte,  who  had  drafted 
the  new  chartia-  of  Massachusetts,  John  Locke,  and  the  rest  of 
the  commission,  instructions  were  given  l^y  the  crown  "  to  in- 
quire into  the  means  of  making  the  colonies  most  useful  and 
beneficial   to   England;    into    the  staples   and   manufactures 
whicli  may  bo  encouraged  there,  and  the  means  of  divertino- 
them  from  trades  which  may  prove  prejudicial  to  England"; 
toexammomto  and  weigh  the  acts  of  the  assemblies ;  "to  sot 
down  the  usefulness  or  mischief  of  them  to  the  crown,  the 
kingdom,  or  the  plantations  themselves ;  to  require  an  account 
ot  all  tlie  moneys  given  for  public  uses  by  the  assemblies  of 
tiio  plantations,  and  how  the  same  are  employed."     The  ad- 
mmistiation  of  the  several  provinces  had  their  unity  in  the 
person  of  the  king,  whose  duties  Avatli  regard  to  them  were 
transacted  through  one  of  the  secretaries  of  state;   but  the 
board  of  trade  was  the  organ  of  inquiries  and  the  centre  of 


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74        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    pabt  hi.  ;  oh.  iv. 

colonial  information.  Every  law  of  a  provincial  legislature 
except  in  some  of  the  charter  governments,  if  it  escaped  the 
veto  of  the  royal  governor,  might  be  arre.^ted  by  the  unfavor- 
able opinion  of  the  law  officer  of  the  crown,  or  by  the  adverse 
report  of  the  board  of  trade.  Its  rejection  could  come  only 
Irom  the  king  in  council,  whose  negative,  even  though  the  act 
had  gone  into  immediate  effect,  invalidated  every  transaction 
under  it  from  the  beginning. 

The  boai-d  of  trade  was  hardly  constituted  before  it  was 
summoned  to  plan  unity  in  the  military  efforts  of  the  prov- 
inces; and  Locke  with  his  associates  despaired,  on  beholding 
them  "crumbled  into  httle  govermnents,  disunited  in  interests, 
m  an  ill  posture  and  much  worse  disposition  to  afford  assist- 
ance to  each  other  for  the  future."    The  board,  in  1697  "after 
consideriig  with  their  utmost  care,"  could  only  recommend 
the  appomtment  of  "  a  captain-general  of  all  the  forces  and  all 
the  mihtia  of  all  the  provinces  on  the  continent  of  North 
America,  Math  power  to  levy  and  command  them  for  their  de- 
fence, under  such  limitations  and  instructions  as  to  his  majesty 
should  seem  best;"  "to  appoint  officers  to  train  the  inhabi- 
tants ;     from  "  the  Quakers,  to  receive  in  money  their  share 
of  assistance;"  and  "to  keep  the  Five  ^tions  tirm  in  friend- 
ship      "  Eewards  "  were  to  be  given  "  for  all  executions  done 
by  the  Indian,  on  the  enemy;  and  the  scalps  they  bring  in  to 
be  we  1  paid  for."     This  plan  of  a  military  dictatorship  is  the 
second  form  of  British  regulation. 

^     With  excellent  sagacity-for  tnie  humanity  perfects  the 
judgment-William  Penn   matured  a  plan  of   a  permanent 
union,  by  a  national  representation  of  the  American  states. 
On  the  eighth  day  of  February  1697,  he  delivered  his  project 
for  an  annual  "congress,"  as  he  tenned  it,  of  two  delegates 
from  each  i^rovince,  with  a  special  king's  commissioner  as  the 
presiding  officer,  to  establish  intercolonial  justice,  "to  prevent 
or  cure  injuries  iu  point  of  commerce,  to  consider  of  ways 
and  means  to  support  the  union  and  safety  of  these  provinces 
against  the  public  enemies.     In  this  congress  the  quotas  of 
men  and  charge  will  be  much  easier  and  more  equally  set, 
than_it  IS  possible  for  any  estabh.hment  here  to  do;  for  the 
provinces,  k-nou-ing  their  own  condition  and  one  another's,  can 


I 


1689-1702.       PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES. 


76 


debate  that  matter  with  more  freedom  and  satisfaction,  and 
better  adjust  and  balance  their  affairs,  in  all  respects,  for 'their 
common  safety' ;"  and  he  added;  "The  detennination,  in  the 
assembly  I  propose,  should  be  by  plurality  of  voices."  ' 

The  proposition  was  advocated  before  the  English  world  in 
the  vigorous  writings  of  Charles  Davenant.     He  disdained  the 
fear  of  a  revolt  of  the  colonies,  "  while  they  have  English 
blood  in  their  veins  and  have"  profitable  "relations  with  Eng- 
land."    "The  stronger  and  greater  they  grow,"  thus  he  ex- 
pressed his  generous  confidence,  "the  more  this  crown  and 
kingdom  will  get  by  them.    Nothing  but  such  an  arbitrary 
power  as  shall  make  them  desperate  can  bring  them  to  rebel 
And  as  care  should  be  taken  to  keep  them  obedient  to  the  laws 
of  England,  and   dependent  upon  their  mother  country    so 
those  conditions,  privileges,  terms,  and  charters  should  l)e  kept 
sacred  and  inviolate,  by  which  they  were  first  encouraged,  at 
their  great  expense  and  with  the  hazard  of  their  lives  to  dis- 
cover eiiltivate,  and  plant  remote  places.     Any  innovations  or 
breach  of  their  original  charters  (besides  that  it  seems  a  breach 
of  the  pubhc  faith)  may,  peradventure,  not  tend  to  the  kind's 
profit."  ° 

But  the  mimstry  adopted  neither  the  military  dictatorship 
o±  Locke  md  his  associates,  nor  the  peaceful  congress  of  Will- 
iam Penn,  nor  the  widely  read  and  long-remembered  advicp  of 
Davenant,  but  tnisted  the  affair  of  quotas  and  salaries  to  royal 
mstructions.  Two  causes  served  to  protect  the  colonies  from 
any  despotic  system.  Responsible  ministers  were  unwilliro.  to 
provoke  a  conflict  with  them;  and  a  generous  love  of  liberty  in 
the  larger  and  better  class  of  Englishmen  compelled  them  aa 
patriots  to  delight  in  its  extension  to  '  parts  of  the  Endish 
dominions.  ° 

England,  at  "the  abdication"  of  its  throne  by  tlie  Sniarts 
was,  as  It  were,  still  free  from  debt,  and  a  direct  tax  on  America 
for  the  benefit  of  the  English  treasury  was  at  that  n.oment 
not  di-eamed  of.  That  the  respective  colonies  should  contrib- 
ute to  the  common  defence  against  the  French  and  Indians 
was  desired  in  America,  was  earnestly  enjoined  from  England  • 
but  the  demand  for  quotas  continued  to  be  directed  by  royal 
mstnictions  to  the  colonies  themselves,  and  was  refused  or 


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76        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  in.;  on.  iv. 

granted  by  tlie  colonial  assemblies,  as  their  own  policy  prompt- 
ed. This  want  of  concert  and  the  refusal  of  contributions 
suggested  the  interference  of  parliament. 

While  the  declaratory  acts,  by  which  each  one  of  the  colo- 
nies asserted  its  right  to  the  privileges  of  Magna  Charta  and  free- 
dom from  taxation  except  vath  their  own  consent,  were  always 
disallowed  by  the  crown,  the  strife  on  the  power  of  parliament 
to  tax  the  colonies  was  willingly  avoided.     The     ^lonial  legis- 
latures had  their  own  budgets,  and  financial  questions  arose: 
Shall  the  grants  be  generally  for  the  use  of  the  crown,  or  shall 
they  be  carefully  limited  to  specific  purposes  ?    Shall  the  mon- 
eys levied  be  confided  to  an  officer  of  royal  appointment,  or  to 
a  treasurer  responsible  to  the  legislature  2    Shall  the  revenue  be 
granted  permanently,  or  from  year  to  year  ?     Shall  the  salaries 
of  the  royal  judges  and  the  royal  governor  be  fixed,  or  depend 
annually  on  the  popular  contentment?    These  were  questions 
consistent  with  the  relations  between  raetropohs  and  colony ; 
but  the  supreme  power  of  parliament  to  tax  at  its  discretion 
was  not  yet  attempted  in  England,  was  always  denied  in  America. 
In  this  way  there  grew  up  a  system  of  administration  by 
the  use  of  the  prerogative.     In  England  the  power  of  the  king 
to  veto  acts  of  parliament  ceased  to  be  used ;  in  the  course  of  a 
few  years  it  came  to  be  employed  in  all  the  colonies  except 
Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island. 

The  crown  obtained  ever^-^vhere  the  control  of  the  judi- 
ciary; for  the  judges,  in  nearly  all  the  colonies,  received  their 
appomtments  from  the  king  and  held  them  at  his  pleasure; 
and  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  king  in  council  was  maintained 
m  them  all.  Kor  was  the  power  given  up  to  bring  a  chartered 
colony,  by  a  scire  facias,  before  English  tribunals. 

Where  the  people  selected  the  judges,  as  in  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island,  they  were  chosen  annually,  and  the  public 
preference,  free  from  fickleness,  gave  stabiHty  to  the  office ; 
where  the  appointment  rested  with  the  royal  governor,  the 
popular  instinct  desired  for  the  judges  an  independent  tenux-e. 
Massachusetts,  in  an  enactment  of  1692,  claimed  the  full  benefit 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  ;  "the  privilege  has  not  yet  been 
granted  to  the  plantations,"  was  the  reply  of  Lord  Somers; 
and  the  act  was  disallowed.     When  the  privilege  was  affiimed 


I    I, 


1689-1702.        PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES.  77 

by  Quoen  Anne,  the  burgesses  of  Virginia,  in  their  gratitude, 
did  but  esteem  it  "an  assertion  to  her  subjects  of  their  just 
rights  and  properties."  England  conceded  the  security  of  per- 
sonal freedom  as  a  boon ;  America  claimed  it  as  a  birthright 

lie  instructions,  by  which  every  royal  governor  was  in- 
vested with  the  censorship  over  the  press,  were  renewed 

In  like  manner,  the  governors  were  commanded  to  "allow 
no  one  to  preach  without  a  license  from  a  bishop ; "  but  the 
instruction  was,  for  the  most  part,  suffered  to  slumber.  To 
advance  the  Anglican  church,  the  crown  incorporated  the  So- 
ciety for  Pi-opagating  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts;  from  dis- 
senters m  America  royal  charters  wer-^  withheld 

The  most  terrible  of  the  royal  instructions  was  that  which 
fostered  slavery.  Before  the  English  crown  became  directly 
concerned  in  the  slave-trade,  governors  were  chargorl  to  keep 
the  market  open  for  merchantable  negroes:  and  measures 
adoi^ted  by  the  colonial  legislatures  to  resLn  \CtrZTere 
nulhfied  by  the  royal  veto. 

In  Mu.  .689,  the  lords  of  the  committee  of  colonies,  will- 
ing to  derive  power  from  the  precedents  of  James  II.,  L^re- 
sentedto  Kmg  William  that  "the  present  relation "  of  the 
charter  colomes  to  England  is  a  matter  "worthy  of  the  consid- 
mtion  of  parliament,  for  the  bringing  those  proprieties  nd 
dormmons  under  a  nearer  dependence  on  the  crowi"  But  at 
that  time  notinng  was  designed  beyond  the  strict  enforcement 
of  the  navigation  acts. 

In  March  iroi,  less  than  ten  years  after  the  grant  of  the 
new  charter  of  Massachusetts,  the  board  of  trade  ifvited  "  the 
egislative  power"  of  England  to  resume  all  charters,  and  re- 
duce the  colomes  to  equal  "  dependency ; "  and,  in  April,  a  biH 
for  that  end  was  introduced  into  the  house  of  lords 

As  the  danger  of  a  new  war  with  France  increased,  William 
was  advised  that,  "besides  the  assistance  he  might  be  ^leoseZ 
give  the  colonies  it  was  necessary  that  the  inhabitants  should  on 
their  part  contribute  to  their  mutual  secmity;"  and  a  new 
requisition  for  quotas  was  made  by  the  warlik/s;vereign  Z 
Pennsylv^na  the  quota  was  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
William  Penn  himself  was  present  to  urge  compliance  but 
war,  reasoned  the  Quakei.,  is  not  better  th^n  peace';  trade  and 


n^ 


r; 


; 


78        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    pabt  m.^  on.  iv. 

commerce  are  no  less  important  than  weapons  of  offence  ;  and 
professing  "readiness  to  acquiesce  witli  the  king's  conmiands  " 
the  assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  like  Massachusetts,  made  excuses 
for  an  absolute  refusal.     Immediately  in  January,  1702,  the 
board  of  trade  represented  to  their  sovereign  the  'defenceless 
condition  of  the  plantations:  "Since  the  chartered  colonies 
refuse  obedience  to  the  late  requisitions,  and  continue  the 
retreat  of  pirates  and  smugglers,  the  national  interest  requires 
that  such  mdependent  administrations  should  be  placed  by  tlie 
legislative  power  of  tins  kingdom  in  the  same  state  of  depend- 
ence as  the  royal  governments."    This  was  the  deUberatc  and 
abiding  opinion  of  the  board,  transmitted  across  half  a  century 
to  the  earl  of  Halifax  and  Charles  Townshend.    But  the  char- 
ters  had  nothing  to  fear  from  William  of  Orange;  for  him  the 
sands  of  life  were  fast  ebbing,  and  in  March  he  was  no  more. 
The  white  inhabitants  of   British  America,  who,  at  the 
accession  of  William  III.,  were  about  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand,  were,  at  the  accession  of  Anne,  in  1702,  at  least  two 
hundraa  and  seventy  thousand.      Their  governors  were  in- 
structed to  proclaim  war  against  France ;  and  a  requisition 
was  made  of  quotas  "  to  build  fortifications  and  to  aid  one 
another."     "  The  other  colonies  will  not  contribute,"  wrote 
Lord  Cornbury,  from  :New  York,  "  till  they  are  compelled  by 
act  of  parliament;"    and  he  afterward  solicited  "an  act  of 
parliament  for  the  establishment  of  a  well-regulated  militia 
everywhere."     In  Virginia,  the  burgesses  would  do  nothing 
"  that  was  disagreeable  to  a  prejudiced  people,"  and  excused 
themselves  from  complying  with  the  requisition.     So  did  all 
the  colonies:  "New  ^ork,   the  Jerseys,   Pennsylvania,   the 
Carolinas,"  were  inf.,  ,ned  against,  as   "transcripts  of  New 
England,"  which  furnished  "  the  worst  of  examples." 

"  Till  the  proprieties  are  brought  under  the  queen's  gov- 
ernment," wrote  Lord  Cornbury,  in  1702,  "  they  will  be  detri- 
mental to  the  other  settlements."  "  Connecticut  and  Ehode 
Island,"  he  added,  the  next  year,  "hate  everybody  that  owns 
any  subjection  to  the  queen."  The  chief  justice  of  New 
York,  m  July  1704,  thus  wanicd  the  secretary  of  state :  "  An- 
timouarchical  principles  and  malice  to  the  church  of  England 
daily  increase  in  most  proprietary  govermuents,  not  omitting 


11.1,1  . 


1680-1702.       PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES.  79 

Boston;  and  to  my  o;vn  knowledge,  some  of  their  leading 
men  already  begin  to  talk  of  shaking  0^  their  subjection  to 
the  crown  of  England." 

Roused  by  continued  complaints,  the  pidvy  council,  in  De- 
cember, 1,05,  summoned  the  board  of  trade  "to  lay  before 
the  queen  the  misfeasances  of  the  proprieties,  and  the  advan- 
tage that  may  arise  from  reducing  them."  The  board  obeyed 
and,  m  January  1706,  represented  the  original  defects  in  the 
forms  of  tl>e  charter  governments,  their  assumed  indepen- 
dence their  antagonism  to  the  prerogative,  the  difficulty  of 
executing  acts  of  parliament  in  provinces  where  their  vahd- 
ity  was  scarcely  admitted,  the  present  inconveniences  of  ad- 
mimstration,  and  the  greater  ones  which  were  to  come.    A 

thi  bJfT'  '"^  ^7^-^'''''.'''  introduced  into  the  commons,  "for 
the  better  regulation  of  the  charter  governments;"  but    t  w^ 

ttoTitlts        "^^"^'^  "  ^'^  '^^^^  ^'  ^-^^'  -  1^^«'  -s 

The  shyness  of  the  Engh^^h  pariiament  to  tax  Americ.  or 

to  abrogate  American  charters  was  changed  into  eagere!    to 

interfere,  when  any  question  related  to  trade.     Of  Te  great 

n  al  system  in  its  seventy;  jot,  pleading  "the  usage  of  other 
nations  to  keep  their  plantations'  trade  to  themselves  "we 
tave  seen  that,  m  the  reign  of  Chai-les  L,  she  too  renewld 

:::n  Tr^Ev^'^f  T^  "^^^^^^^^'  connecting  v:r 

others  an  in  r    ^  if'  '  r'  ''^'^^  ^^«'  ^^  ^^^^^^on  of  all 
othei.,  an    ndisputable  right  to  the  services  of  its  own  sub 
jects  ;  England  should  be  the  sole  market  for  all  products  of 
America,  and  the  only  storehouse  for  its  supplies 

ence      Th''  T"'"''  *^'  '^^'"^^  '^  ^^'^'^^^^  "^^^^  no  differ- 
ence.    The  enforcement  of  the  mercantile  system  in  its  in 

"Thevfllnp^-p  1     A,,^  ^  of  artificial   legislat  on. 

pris Lr  tl  e  \T  ''  ^'  '''^'^  ''  '  ™^^*-«  for  op. 

pressing  the  colonies.     AH  questions  on  colonial  libertv  and 
affairs  were  decided  from  the  point  of  view  of  EM  oT 
merce  and  the  interests  of  the  U  landTordel.^-if  ^Lrd 


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i;! 

,1 

■i: 

80        HIUTISII  AMERICA  FROM  1(J88  TO  1748.    i-aut  m.;  en.  iv. 

that  IS^'ow  York  liud  never  respected  the  acts  of  trade ;  that 
Pennsylvania  and  Carolina  were  the  refajre  of  tlio  Illicit  trader; 
that  the  mariners  of  New  En<,dand  distrilnited  the  productions 
of  the  tropics  through  the  world.    By  an  act  of  1<;!)(;,  all  for- 
mer acts  giving  a  monopoly  of  the  colonial  trade  to  England 
were  renewed,  and,  to  effect  their  i-igid  execution,  the  ])ai-ar 
mount  authority  of  jiarliament  was  strictly  asserted.     Colonial 
commerce  could  he  conducted  oidy  in  ships  built,  owned,  and 
connnanded  by  the  people  of  England  or  of  the  colonies.     A 
clause  giving  a  severe  construction  to  the  act  of  1(;72  dec-lared 
that,  even  after  the  payment  of  export  duties  on  the  products 
of  the  colonies,  those  jn-oducts  should  not  be  taken  to  a  foreign 
market ;  at  the  same   time,  "  the  officers  for  collecting  and 
managing  liis  majesty's  revenues"  in  America  obtained  equal 
powers  of  visiting,  searching,  and  entering  Avarehouses   and 
wharfs  with  the  olHccrs  of  the  customs  in  England  ;  charters 
were  for  the  first  time  overnded  by  an  act  of  parliament,  and 
the  aiipointment  of  tlic  proprietary  governors  was  subjected  to 
the  royal  negative  ;  all  governors  were  ordered  to  promise  by 
oath  their  utmost  efforts  to  carry  every  clause  of  the  acts  of 
trade  into  effect ;  and  every  American  law  or  custom  repug- 
nant to  this  or  any  other  English  statute  for  the  colonics,  made 
or  lioreafter  to  be  nuide,  was  abrogated,  as  "illegal,  null,  and 
void,  to  all  intents  and  jnirposes  whatsoever." 

The  words  were  explicit,  both  declaratory  and  enacting ; 
but  it  was  not  easy  to  restrain  the  trade  of  a  continent.  In 
March,  1(597,  the  house  of  lords,  after  an  intiuiry,  represented 
to  the  king  the  continuance  of  illegal  practices,  and  advised 
"courts  of  adnn'raltyin  the  plantations,  that  offences  against 
the  act  of  naA-igation  might  no  longer  be  decided  by  judges 
and  jurors  who  Avore  themselves  often  the  greatest  offenders." 
In  1098,  the  commissioners  for  the  customs  joined  in  the  de- 
naand ;  and  royalists  of  the  next  century  were  glad  to  repeat 
that  Locke  sanctioned  the  measure.  The  crown  lawyers  over- 
ruled all  objections  derived  from  charters,  and  the  king  set  up 
his  courts  of  vice-admiralty  in  America. 

In  1009,  the  system,  which  made  England  the  only  market 
and  the  only  storehouse  for  the  colonies,  received  a  new  devel- 
opment by  an  act  of  parliament,  which  reached  the  door  of 


1089-1702.        PAULIAMENT  AND   THE  COLONIES.  gj 

uvcry  farm.|,„„s„  ^-itl,;,,  t,,„„,^  „„j  ^,„|,,^,|.^ 

01  Loop  a  «p,„dlu,  .„.  a  l„o,„.    The  pmunblo  to  a„  Ift  „£ 
par  m„,c„t  av.nvH  tI,o  ,„otive  for  a  ,v«t„,iui„j;  law  i„     rln 

of  lauds  '  ,„  E„.|a„d.  Tl,o  .-.other  co„..try  oo„W  JLltll 
l«»™t  ,..to..c.tof  it,  landholdc,  ,.ara,„ou'„t  to  ..:.  "r^t 
ticc.  Ihe  .  a.,.H..,  wluch  X  au,  ahont  to  citu,  k  a  me.norial  of  a 
de  „,,„n  ,vh,d,  onco  pervaded  all  Wentorn  Europe,  and  1th 
lias  already  so  passed  avvaj  that  ,ne„  nvm  im-Lh,l.l  f  , 
former  existence:  "After  tl.e  first  da/oi  Do  e  ,b  "  ;"f 
woo ,  or  „,a.„iaet,.re  ,„ade  or  .nixed  with    >:.^,   hi  f  I 

Ainenc.'i,  i,lull  he  loadeii  m  any  ship  or  vessel,  upon  aav  m„ 
tence  whatseever-nor  loadeu  upo,    .my  hors^  Z    or  J 

dn.e«s,  or  he  earried  to  Alhany  for  traft  wl  ^  ^1"^^ 
An  Lnphsh  sador,  finding  himself  in  want  of  elotliesTn^' 
An,mcan  harbor,  nnght  bay  tbero  forty  slnilin.^'  worth  of 

ttet;,.d"f  l;  T''"""  '^""'^'^  ^''™  '-»'■  '0  ."anufaetnres, 
tue  Doaid  ol  trade  was  sure  to  interiiosp     Vw..^  v^         i      ^ 

.n...t  be  seen  from  a  distance  to  br:im.  d  '  wlt'd 

Lo  he  saw  no  wrong  in  this  legislation,  as  Jercn.y  Z  or  and 

arWcnd  legislation,  so  cor„,pted  the  pnbl  c  jndlen    InUhe 

mWei-able  .njustice  of  the  inereantile  Vtem  wafrs™ lo" 

In  y,rg„ua,  the  poverty  of  the  people  compiled  ^em  to 

attempt  coai-se  manufactures,  or  to  my  undid  •  vet  W;T,    *" 

Vugnnans  to  make  the.r  own  clothing.    Spotswood  repeats 


i   .      II  1 
M      1  ! 

82        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    pabtiim  en.  iv. 

the  complaint :  "  The  people,  more  of  necessity  than  of  incli- 
nation, attempt  to  clothe  tiiemKolves  ^^^th  thoir  own  manufac- 
tures;" adding  that  "  it  is  certainly  necessary  to  divert  their 
application  to  some  conunodity  less  prejudicial  to  the  trade  of 
Great  Britain."  In  1701,  the  charter  colonies  were  reproached 
hy  the  lords  of  trade  "with  promotinf?  and  propa<?ating  wool- 
len and  other  manufactures  proper  to  England."  The  English 
need  not  fear  to  conquer  Canada:  such  was  the  reasoning  of 
an  American  agent ;  for,  in  Canada,  "  where  the  cold  is  ex- 
treme, and  snow  lies  so  long  on  the  ground,  sheep  will  never 
thrive  so  as  to  make  the  woollen  manufactures  possible,  which 
is  the  only  thing  that  can  make  a  plantation  unprolitable  to  the 
crown."     The  policy  was  continued  by  every  administration. 

To  the  enumerated  conunodities,  which  could  be  sold  only 
in  countries  belonging  to  the  crown  of  England,  molasses  and 
rice  were  added  in  1704 ;  though  in  1730  rice  was  set  free. 

Irish  linen  cloth  was  afterward  conditionally  excepted ;  but 
at  the  end  of  three  years  Ireland  was  abruptly  dismissed  from 
partnership  in  the  colonial  monopoly ;  even  wliile  the  enumer- 
ated products  might  still  be  carried  to  "  other  English  planta- 
tions." 

A  British  parliament  could  easily  make  these  enactments, 
but  America  evaded  them  as  unjust.  From  Pennsylvania,  the 
judge  of  the  court  of  admiralty— a  court  hated  in  that  colony, 
as  "  more  destructive  to  freedom  than  the  ship-money  "—wrote 
home  that  his  "  commission  could  be  of  no  effect,  while  the 
government  denied  the  forco  of  the  acts  of  parliament ; "  and 
though  William  Penn  entered  a  plea  that  his  people  were  "  not 
so  disobedient  as  mistaken  and  ignorant,"  yet  in  August,  1699, 
the  l)oard  of  trade  reported  "  the  bad  disposition  of  that  peo- 
ple and  the  mismanagement  of  that  administration,  as  requir- 
ing a  speedy  remedy." 

In  New  Ilampsliirc,  Lord  Bellomont,  in  November  1700, 
found  that  the  people  "  laughed  at  the  orders  of  the  board  "  of 
trade  against  carrying  their  lumber  directly  to  Portugal.  In 
the  same  year,  the  councillors  of  Massachusetts  were  openly 
"  indignant  at  the  acts  of  navigation  ; "  insisting  that  "  they 
were  as  much  Englishmen  as  those  in  England,  and  liad  a 
right,  therefore,  to  all  the  privileges  which  the  people  of  Eng- 


1089-1702.        PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES.  33 

InllpirZt"     ^"'  '!"  'V''  '''  ^"^*""  ''-'''  *'^'^  f™  the 
-UP  ''^'^'•^Y^':"'^^  '•^>'""1  i»  -.nHc-icu..  to  obey  the 

:      sit'   t'   H    "'?  "•  .vprcsentative.  there   of  ^hei 
cJioosn,..       To   tlie  orders  sent  to  (Carolina,  "  to   prosecute 

S':;:;r      "'  '''  -^-^^-n '' t^e  repUel  werel.  co^^ 
f h      m  '^^"t'"'-"^^'"^""*  to  illicit  trade,  and  opposition  to 

the  othcers  ot  the  revenue  and  the  adn.iralty."     "The  nr  li  1 

ir  r V-  "'  •'"  r''-^'^'^'«---'-^"iniected  M^^: 
k^^  d  and  Virgnua  Trom  1688  to  l.ll.s,  the  phuitation  (h.tie, 
7.0  ded  no  more  than  the  expenses  of  nmnagelnent;  nor  Id 
all  the  enero^y  of  authority  make  them  bring  hito  theexehe  er 
"lore  than  about  a  th<,usand  pounds  a  year.  «'^^^^a"«r 

-./.oJ  maritime  wars  hud  increased  iu*i-aov  and  in  Ar.^'i 
IT  0  parliament  seized  the  opportunity^.fX'  cr^ne  to^C 
trate  its  an  hority.     It  deh'ned  the  offence,  overnded     nrti 

colony  10, luted.     "The  parbamont,  having  in  view  the  ro 

tl.c  ooard  of  trado,    have  now  passed  an  act  that  extends  to  all  • 

l>y  winoli  t  ,„se  of  New  England  may  pereeive  that  X™  he 

S'het::  jt: ^^"  '^  "--^  --'"W.  .-.o  .ropel-Tned; 

The  eoins  that  chTi.lated  in  the  colonies  were  chiefly  for- 

C  •?  "'°  'T-"^  ''"■'"  ■""""y'"  Massaehnseets. 

170-4  a  n„,fonn  valnation  of  the  severcl  fomm,  coins  wh 
passed  ,n  pajnnents  in  the  plantations  was  fixed  taEnlh 

Son     Tl         ,        "'"  '"■''™''  '•^'  "■<^«"«'™>  a«  tli  prociama- 
t.on^  Tl  c  evil  was  never  overcome  by  England. 

The  Amencan  post-otHce  defmyed  its  own  expenses.    By 


M 


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I 

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,   li 

'M  •:! 

84        niUTlsn  AMERICA  I'lWM  1088  TO  1748.    paut  m. ;  cii.  iv. 

an  act  of  prerogative,  Williiim  III.  luid,  in  U\[)2,  appointed  a 
postmaster  for  tlie  northern  proviiiceH.  New  York  feebly  ou- 
ctourapHJ,  IMaHHachuHetts  neglected,  the  enterprise.  In  1710, 
the  Uritish  piirlianicint  erected  a  post-ofKce  for  Anionea,  estal)- 
lishiug  tlio  rates  of  postage,  conferring  the  freedom  of  uU  fer- 
ries, appoiiiting  a  summary  process  for  collecting  dues,  and 
making  New  Voi'k  the  centrv--  of  its  operations.  The  routes 
of  the  malls  were  gradually  extended  tlu'ough  all  the  colonies; 
Virginia,  where  it  was  introduced  in  171H,  at  Hrst  took  alarm; 
for  "the  people,"  as  Spotswood  iuformcd  the  board,  "  believed 
that  i)arliamont  could  not  lay  any  tax  on  them  without  the 
consent  of  the  gcnoral  assembly."  But  postage  soon  came  to 
be  regarded  as  an  equitable  payment  for  a  valuable  service. 

The  British  parliament  interfered  for  one  other  purpose, 
not  so  directly;  connected  ^v^th  tri'de.  In  1704,  to  emancipate 
the  English  navy  from  dependence  on  Sweden,  a  bounty  was 
offered  on  naval  stores,  and  was  accompanied  by  o  prt)viso 
which  extended  the  jurisdiction  of  parliament  to  every  grove 
north  of  the  Delaware.  Every  ijiteh-pinc  tree,  not  in  an  en- 
closure, was  consecrated  to  the  ])urposes  of  the  English  navy ; 
and  in  the  undivided  domain,  no  tree  lit  for  a  nuist  might  be 
cut  without  the  cpiecn's  license. 

Beyond  these  measures,  parliament  at  that  time  did  not 
proceed.  The  English  lawyers  of  the  day  had  no  doubt  of  the 
power  of  parliament  to  tax  America.  But  even  the  iinpetuous 
Saint- John  dared  not  attempt  to  pay  the  royal  officers  in  the 
colonies  by  a  parliamentary  tax.  In  August,  1711,  Oxford, 
the  lord  treasurer,  inquired  of  the  board  of  trade  "  whether 
there  be  not  money  of  her  majesty's  revenue  in  that  country  to 
pay"  the  garrison  at  Port  Royal;  and  n  June  1713,  "fore- 
seeing that  grea+  expense  would  arise  to  the  kingdom  by  the 
large  supplies  of  stores  demanded  for  the  colonies,  he  desired 
the  board  of  trade  to  consider  how  they  might  be  made  to 
supply  themselves."  But  faction  within  the  English  cabinet 
l)affled  every  effort  at  system.  The  papers  of  the  board  of 
trade  began  to  lie  unnoticed  in  the  office  of  the  secretary  of 
state;  its  annual  reports  ceased;  '.d  whoever  had  colonial 
business  to  transact  went  directly  to  the  privy  council,  to  the 
adnuralty,  to  the  treasury. 


1(189-1705.        PAIvLIAMENT  AND  THE  C0L0x\IE8. 


85 


With  every  year  jnoplu'cies  IukI  hacn  inudo  of  tlio  ten- 
dencies of  the  coh)nleH  to  indejjondeneo.       In  ull  tliowe  prov- 
inces iiiid  phmtiitions,"  Aim,  in  Angnnt  1(H>S,  wrote  NiclK.Ison, 
w!io  Imd  been  in  otHce  in  Now  York  and  MaryhmJ,  and  was 
then  ^^overnor  <.f  Vir^Hnia,  "a  great  many  jjoople,  espueially 
in  tliu.se  nnder  prop -ietane-s  und  tlie  twootherHof  Connr^cticut 
and  Rhode  InhuKl,  tliinii  that  no  hiw  of  England  onglit  to  be 
in  force  and  binding  on  tliem  withont  tlieir  own  coi:seiu  ;  for 
they  fooli.shly  wiy  that  they  have  no  reprenentative  sent  from 
themselves  to  the  parliament,  and   they  look  upon  all  laws 
made  in  England,  that  j)nt  a-v  restraint  upon  them,  to  be  great 
hardships."     Ireland  was  already  reasoning  in  the  same  man- 
ner; and  its  writers  joined  America  in  disavowing  the  validity 
of  Ii.-itish  statutes  over  nations  not  represented  hi  the  liritish 
legiai.'nre. 

In  ITOI,  the  lords  of  trade,  in  a  i  ibHc  document,  declared  • 
"  J  he  riulependency  the  colonies  thirst  after  is  now  notorious  " 
"Commciwealth  notions  improve  daily,"  wrote  (jjuarry   tlie 
surveyor  general  of  the  customs,  in  1703;  "and,  if  it  be'  net 
checked  in  time,  the  rights  and  privileges  of  English  subiects 
wdl  .e  thought  too  narrow."     In  1704,  the  lords  of  trade  re- 
ported agamst  suffering  assembhes  to  make  representations  to 
tlie  queen  by  separate  agents.     In  1705,  it  wiu^  eaiu  in  print- 
"The  colonists  will,  in  process  of  time,  cast  off  their  allegiance 
to  England,  and  set  up  a  goven>nient  of  their  own;"  and  bv 
degrees  It  came  to  be  remarked,  "by  people  of  all  conditions 
and  qualities,  tuat  their  increasing  i:  ambers  and  wealth,  joined 
to  t.eir  great  distance  from  Britain,  would  give  them  an  op- 
portunity, in  the  course  of  some  years,  to  throw  off  their 
dependence  on  the  nation,  and  declare  themselves  a  free  state 
i±  not  ^curbed  in  time,  by  being  made  entirely  subject  to  the 
crown.      "  Som  3  great  men  professed  their  behef  oif  the  feasi- 
bleness  of  ,t,  and  the  probability  of  its  some  time  or  other 
actually  commg  to  pass." 


i.    ' 


ll_.r 


i« 


86 


lUilTISll  AMICIilUA  FliUM  1088  TO  171S. 


r.vKT  111.:  (111.  V. 


(MIA ITER  V. 


0 


THK    Kl'l)    MKN    KASI'  OK    I'llK   MlSSISSmu. 

UK  counirv  was  ivs  ripo  for  ji^ovoniini::  'f'^i'""  i"  1<iS!> 


I77(i;   l>iit    the  tinio  was  not  yot 


lis  III 


COllU' 


nvt'tod   into  a  system,  whifl 


III'    Coloiili'S    WCM'O 


1  cvor 


y  inaritiiiu'  |)(»wer  in  Kiiropu 


hail  asf-isti'd  to  I'ranu',  and  wliicli  honnd  in  stronu"  bond 


s  oviM'y 


otiior  (juarttT  of  (lie  jvlohe.  Tlu-ir  indopendcnco  would  hv  a, 
rovolution  in  the  coinincrcial  policy  of  llu'  world.  There  was 
no  union  anion-v  the  settlenienls  )li;;t  as  yet  did  Imt  fi-iii^i,a>  tlio 
AtlaiUie;  and  not  one  nation  in  Kuroi)e  would  at  that  day  liaye 
fostered  their  insunvetion.    AVhen  Austria,  with  i!el.-iuin,sl 


abandon   its  hereditary  warf 


la 


II 


ire  aii'ainst   France  ;   when  Spain 


and    Holland,  favored  by  the  a,n!>"<l   neutrality  of    I 


Sweden,  [)(>nniark,  Pru 


'ortni-'id. 


witl 


ssi;i,  nnd   Russia,  shall  be  ready  to  ]* 


1    I' ranee  ni   repressing-  the  commercial  ambit 


land—then,  and  not  till  tl 


ion    o 


f  V 


oni 
iiii-- 


len,  will   American  independence  be- 


come possible.     These  chanj^es,  improbable  as  they  mi«vhi  1 
seemed,  \y,ro  to  s|)rin_i>-  from  (he   falf 


nave 


nayiii'ation.      Our  soil 


e  maxims  of  trade  and 


w; 


tl 


le  des 


tin 


I'll 


i)a 


ttle-i 


<irt)Uiul  ol 


tl 


grand  conliiet  for  commercial  ascendency.     The  stnii^.dcs  fc 


le 


maritime  and  colonial  d 


Ol 


ninion,  which  transformed  tlie  n 


or 


iisnc- 


eessfnl  competitors  into  the  defendei-s  of  the  freedom  of  tl 


sea^ 


iiaviiiir. 


in  tl 


le 


leir  proo;ress,  tandit  our  father 


pared  for  our  country  the  opportunity  of  independ 


s  union. 


pre- 


Tl 


le  object  of  the  acts  of  trade  and 


lencG. 


nayi'^ation  was  to  sell 


as  I 


nueii  as  possible,  to  buy  ar.  little  as  possible.     Pushed  t 


extreme,  they  would  dest 


o  an 


royal!  commerce;  in  a  mitii^ated  form. 


they  provoked  European  wars ;  for  each  nation,  in  its  trattie, 
i^oujvht  to  levy  tribute  on  all  others  in  favor  of  its  industry,  and 
envied  the  wealth  of  a  lival  as  its  own  loss. 


EFFECTa  OF  EXCLUSrVKNESS  IN  TIIADE. 


boci 


87 


The  ooinnicrcial  intercHt 
[mlitifs;  it  IVaniod  iilliaiiceH,  controlled  vvai-H,  and  dictutod  troii- 
ticH.     A  ftcr  the  diHcovery  of  Anion'ca  and  of  tlio  path  hy  water 
to  rndia,  the  oeeans  vindicated  their  nVhtM  tus  natunil  high- 
ways.    Navi^raM,,,,  ,•„  a,K;i(!n.,  dajH  i<(!|)t  near  tlie  eoiwt,  or  was 
but  a  piLssa^^e  from  isle  to  inlo  ;  its  (ihosen  way  was  now  upon 
the  boundless  (kjep.     Of  oh]  the  objeets  of  trade  were  restri(;t- 
od;  foriioweoidd  rice  or  sn^i.r  be  brouf^dit  across  continents 
from  the  (Jan-es^     Now  Euro])ean  si i i ps /^.athered  cvciy  pro- 
duction of  the  ciiKt  and  th(!  west;  tea,  mffu;  (iolfecs  and  spices 
Irom  China,  and    Ilindostan;   masts  from   American  h)reHts ; 
furs  from  Hudson's  bay;  men  from  Africa. 

The  Plurnician,  (Jreei<,  and  Jtahan  n!pul)Ii(-s,  each  be^ran  as 
a  city  ^rovernment,  retaini.i^.  its  nmnicipai  eharact(;r  after  the 
oular-ement  of  its  .iuris.h'ction  and  the  (b-lfusion  of  its  cohmies. 
Ihe  -reat  Luropean  coloni^cin^-  powers  were  i.ionarcliies,  -rasp- 
nii?  at  continents  for  tiieir  plantations.     ]„  tlie  tn.pical  isles  of 
America  a.:,!  the  East  they  made  tlieir  ^ank^ns  for  Ihe  f,-uit,s  (,f 
the  torrid  zone;  the  (.^mlilleriis  and  the  Andes  supplied  their 
uiintH  with  bullion;  p,)i„tH  on  tlie  coasts  of  Africa  a,nd  Asia 
were  select(Ml  as  c.mmercial  stations;  and  the  colonists  that 
«warmed  to  the  temperate  .virions  of  America-such  was  the 
universal   metropohtan  aspiration-were  to   c<,nsume   infinite 
quar-tities  of  European  manufactures. 

_     That  the  mercantihj  system  should  ])e  applied  by  each  na- 
tmn  to  Its  own  clonics  was  tolerated  I>y  the  ix.litical  morality 
of  that  day.     Each  metropolis  was  at  war  with  the  interestH 
aud  natural  ri^dits  of  its  dc-pendencies ;  and  as  each  sin^rb  colo- 
ny was  too  feeble  for  resistance,  colonial  oppression  was  destined 
to  endure  as  lon^^  as  the  union  of  the  oppressors.     Ihit  the  com- 
incrcial  jcilousies  of  Europe  extended,  from  the   lirst,  to  the 
other  continents ;  and  the  liome  relations  of  the  stat(.s  of  tlie 
OUnV  orld  to  (>aeh  other  were  h-nally  surpassed  in  importance 
by  their  transatlantic  conflicts.     The  system  of  trade  and  navi- 
gation,J,ein;.  founded  in  selfish  hijustiee,  was  doomed  not  only 
to  expire,  but,  by  overthrowing^  the  mighty  fabric  of  the  colo- 
lual  system,  to  emancipate  commerce  and  colonies. 

Before  t,he  discovery  of  Amenca,   Portuf^a]   had   reached 
Madeira,  and  the  Azores,  tlie  Cape  Verde  isha.ds  and  Congo; 


'    t 


f  i 


i 

t 


r 

m 


■Hi 


i  y .  I 


H 


1 1 


11 


,(l  I 


I    I 


]W 


^: 


\l  'i 


r    I 


ihP 


88         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi.  ;  on.  v. 

within  six  years  after  the  discovery  of  Hayti,  Vasco  da  Gama, 
sailing  wliere  none  but  Africans  from  Carthage  had  preceded, 
turned  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  arrived  at  Mo'ziiuibique,  passed 
beyond  the  Arabian  peninsula,  landed  at  Calicut,  and  made  an 
establishment  at  Cochin. 

The  brilliant  temerity  of  the  same  nation  achieved  estab- 
lishments on  western  and  eastern  Africa,  in  Arabia  and  Persia, 
in  Hindostan  and  the  eastern  isles,  and  in  Brazil.  The  closest 
system  of  monopoly,  combined  with  the  desi)otit5m  of  the  sov- 
ereign and  the  intolerance  of  the  priesthood,  precipitated  the 
decay  of  Portuguese  commerce ;  and  the  Moors,  the  Persians, 
Holland,  and  Spain,  dismantled  Portugal  of  her  acquisitions  at 
so  early  a  period  that  she  was  never  involved,  as  a  leading 
party,  in  the  ware  of  North  America. 

Conforming  to  the  division  of  the  worid  by  Po]:ie  Alexan- 
der VI.,  Spain  never  reached  the  Asiatic  world  except  by  trav- 
elling west,  and  never  took  possession  of  any  territory  in  Asia 
beyond  the  Philippine  isles.     But  in  America  there  grew  up  a 
Spanish  world  of  ioundless  extent.     Marching  with  British 
America  on  the  south  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi, 
Spain  was  easily  involved  in  controversy  with  England  on  re 
ciprocal  territorial  encroachments;  and,  excluding  foreigners 
from  all  participatioji  in  her  colonial  trade,  she  could  not  but 
ai-ouse  the  cupidity  of  English  commerce,  bent  on  extending 
itself  by  smuggUng,,  and,  if  necessaiy,  by  force.     Yet  the  max- 
ims according  to  which  Spain  ruled  islands  and  half  a  conti- 
nent were  adopted  by  England ;  and  both  powers  became  in- 
volved in  the  methods  of  monopoly. 

Holland  had  risen  into  greatness  as  the  chamjiion  of  mari- 
time freedom ;  yet  the  republic,  possessing  s]iiee  islands  in  the 
Indian  seas,  admitted  to  them  no  European  flag  but  its  o\\m. 

France  and  England  were  the  two  boldest,  most  powerful, 
and  most  persistent  competitors  for  new  acquisitions ;  and  so 
long  as  each  of  them  governed  what  they  acquired  by  the  max- 
ims of  exch^siveness,  they  became  in  tnith  natural  enemies. 

In  France  the  monarchy  had  subjected  the  nobility  to  the 
crown,  and  given  dignity  to  the  class  of  citizens.  In  the  mag- 
istracy, as  in  the  church,  they  could  reach  high  employments ; 
and  the  members  of  the  royal  council  were,  almost  without  ex- 


THE  ALGONKIN  FAMILY  OF  NATIONS.  §9 

ception,  selected  from  tlic  ignoble.  The  middling  class  was 
constantly  increasing  in  importance ;  and  the  energies  of  the 
knigdom,  if  not  employed  in  arms  for  aggrandizement,  beo-an 
to  be  husbanded  for  connnerce,  manufactures,  and  the  arts.  ^ 

Even  before  the  days  of  Colbert  the  colonial  rivah-v  with 
England  had  begim.     When  Queen  Ehzabeth  gave  a  charter 
to  a  first  not  veiy  successful  English  East  India  company 
France,  under  Richelieu,  struggled,  though  vainly,  to  share  the 
great  commerce  of  Asia.     The  same  year  in  which  England 
took  possession  of  Barbados,  Frenchmen  occupied  the  half  of 
St.  Christopher's.     Did  England  add  half  St.  Christopher's 
Nevis,  and  at  last  Jamaica,  France  gained  Martiuique  and  Gua- 
daloupe  with  smaller  islets,  founded  a  colony  at  Cayenne,  and 
by  the  aid  of  buccaneers,  took  possession  of  the  west  of  Ilayti' 
England,  by  its  devices  of  tariffs  and  prohibitions,  and  by  the 
royal  assent  to  the  act  of  navigation,  sought  to  call  into  action 
every  power  of  production,  hardly  a  year  before  Colbert,  in 
1664  attempted  in  hke  manner  by  artificial  legislation  to  fos- 
ter the  mdustnes  and  finances  of  France,  and  insure  to  it  spa- 
cious seaports,  canals,  colonies,  and  a  mxj.     The  English  East 
India  company  had  but  just  revived  under  Chai-les  II    when 
France  gave  pri.-ileges  to  an  East  India  commercial  corpora- 
tion; and  the  banner  01"  the  Bourbons,  in  1675,  reached  Mala- 
bar and  Coromandel.     The  British  fourth  African  company, 
of  16  ^4  with  the  Stniarts  for  stockholders  and  the  slave-trade 
for  Its  ol^iect  m  1679  found  a  rival  in  the  Senegal  company; 
and    in  lO.o,  just  when  the  French  king  was  most  zealous 
for  the  conversion  of  the  Huguenots,  he  estabhshed  a  Guinea 
company  to  trade  from  Sierra  Leone  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
France,  through  Colbert  and  Seignelay,  had  in  conception  gi4n 
her  colonial  system  an  extent  even  vaster  than  that  of  the  Brit- 
ish ;  and  the  prelude  to  the  disniption  of  the  European  colo- 
nial system,  whicli  was  sure  to  be  the  overthrow  of  the  sys- 
tem o    monopoly  in  trade  and  navigation,  was  the  contest  for 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 

T^e  Europeans  had  on  every  side  drawn  near  the  red  men  • 
bu  however  eager  the  intruders  might  be  to  appropriate  do^ 
mmion  by  carving  their  emblems  on  trees  and  marking  their 
lines  of  anticipated  empire  on  maps,  their  respective  settle- 


* 


i  I 


n 


i     '■  •) 


1  : 

■ 
■ 

\ 

i 

) 

i 

'    a 

!  i 
1 

i 
;  1 

li 

^S-' 

1 

i 

\ 


III 


iii|ij 


90         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748. 


PAKT  III.  ;    CH.  V. 


raents  were  still  kept  asunder  by  a  wilderness.  France  and 
England,  in  their  war  for  American  territory,  were  therefore 
compelled  to  seek  allies  in  its  aboriginal  inhabitants. 

The  aspect  of  the  red  men  of  the  United  States  was  so 
uniform  that  there  is  no  method  of  grouping  them  into  fami- 
lies but  by  their  languages. 

That  which  was  the  most  widely  diffused,  and  the  most  fer- 
tile in  dialects,  received  from  the  French  the  name  of  Algon- 
KiN.  It  was  the  mother  tongue  of  those  who  greeted  the 
colonists  of  Ealeigh  at  Eoanoke,  of  those  who  welcomed  the 
pilgnms  at  Plymouth.  It  was  heard  from  the  bay  of  Gaspe 
to  the  vaUey  of  the  Des  Moines ;  from  Cape  Fear  and,  it  may 
be,  from  the  Savannah,  to  the  land  of  the  Esquimaux ;  from 
the  Cumberland  river  of  Kentucky  to  the  southern  bank  of 
the  Missinipi.  It  was  spoken,  though  not  exclusively,  in  a 
territory  that  extended  through  sixty  degrees  of  longitude  and 
more  than  twenty  degrees  of  latitude.  The  Elackfoot  tribe, 
which  dwells  at  the  foot  of  the  Eocky  Moimtains,  Ijetween  the 
head-waters  of  the  Saskatchewan  and  the  Missouri,  and  the 
Cheyenne,  which  had  roamed  to  the  borders  of  the  North  and 
South  Platte  rivers,  are  classed  as  Algonkins. 

The  Micmacs,  who  occupied  the  east  of  the  continent,  south 
of  the  little  tribe  that  dwelt  round  the  bay  of  Gaspe,  held  pos- 
session of  Nova  Scotia  and  the  adjacent  isles,  and  probably 
never  much  exceeded  three  thousand  in  number.  They  were 
known  to  om-  fathers  only  as  the  active  allies  of  the  French ; 
they  often  invaded,  but  never  inhabited,  ISTew  England. 

The  Etchemins,  or  Canoemen,  dwelt  not  only  on  the  St. 
John's  river,  tlie  Ouygondy  of  the  natives,  Init  on  the  St. 
Croix,  which  Cham])lain  always  called  from  their  iiarae,  and 
they  extended  as  far  west,  at  least,  as  Mount  Desert. 

Next  to  these  came  the  Abenakis,  of  whom  one  tribe  has 
left  its  name  to  the  Penol)scot,  and  another  to  the  Androscog- 
gin ;  while  a  third,  under  the  auspices  of  Jesuits,  had  its  cha}>el 
and  its  fixed  abode  in  the  fertile  fields  of  Norridgewock. 

Clans  that  disappeared  from  their  ancient  hunting-grounds 
migrated  to  the  North  and  West.  Of  the  Sokokis,  who  seem 
to  have  dwelt  near  Saco  and  to  have  had  an  alliance  with  the 
Mohawks,  many,  in  lOiG,  abandoned  the  region  where  they 


THE  ALGONKIN  FAMILY  OF  NATIONS.  91 

first  became  known  to  European  voyagers,  and  placed  them- 
selves under  the  French  in  Canada. 

The  forests  Avest  of  the  Saeo,  New  Hampshire,  and  the 
country  as  far  as  Salem,  constituted  the  sachemsliip  of  Pena- 
cook,  or  Pawtucket,  and  often  afforded  a  refuge  to  the  rem- 
nants of  feebler  nations  around  them.  The  tribe  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts, even  before  tlie  colonization  of  the  country,  had 
almost  disappeared  from  the  shores  of  the  bay  that  bears  its 
name ;  and  the  villages  of  the  interior  resembled  insulated  and 
nearly  independent  bands,  that  had  lost  themselves  in  the 
wilderness. 

Of  the  Pokanokets,  who  dwelt  round  Mount  Hope,  and 
were  sovereigns  over  Nantucket,  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  a 
part  of  Cape  Cod;  of  the  Nan-agansetts,  who  dwelt  between 
the  bay  that  bears  their  name  and  the  present  limits  of  Con- 
necticut, holding  dominion  over  Ehode  Island  and  its  vicinity, 
as  weU  as  a  part  of  Long  Island,  the  most  civilized  of  the 
northern  nations ;  of  the  Pequods,  the  branch  of  the  Mohegans 
that  occupied  the  eastern  side  of  Connecticut,  and  i-uled  a  part 
of  Long  Island— the  destruction  has  ah-eady  been  related.  The 
country  between  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut  and  the  Hudson 
was  possessed  by  independent  villages  of  the  Mohegans,  kin- 
dred with  the  Manhatttms,  whose  few  "smokes"  once  rose 
amid  the  forests  on  New  York  island. 

The  Lenni-Lenape,  in  their  two  divisions  of  the  Minsi  and 
the  Delawares,  occupied  New  Jersey,  the  valley  of  the  Dela- 
ware far  up  toward  the  sources  of  that  river,  and  the  basin  of 
the  Schuylkill.  The  Delawares  were  pledged  to  a  system  of 
peace ;  their  passiveness  was  the  degrading  confession  of  their 
subjection  by  the  Five  Nations,  who  had  stripped  them  of 
their  rights  as  warrioi-s  and  compelled  them  to  endure  taunts 
as  women. 

Beyond  the  Delaware,  on  the  eastern  shore,  dwelt  the 
Nanticokes,  who  disappeared,  or  melted  imperceptibly  into 
other  tribes ;  and  the  names  of  Accomack  and  PaniHco  are 
the  chief  memorials  of  tribes  that  made  dialects  of  the  Algon- 
Idn  the  mother  tongue  of  the  natives  along  the  sea-coast  as 
far  south,  at  least,  as  Cape  Hatteras.  It  is  pro])able  that  the 
Corees,  or  Coramines,  who  dwelt  to  the  southwai-d  of  the 


I      ■     i 


mil 


ft  ■"! 


r';»f. 


1        i 


VI » 


Illf 


im:  r 


li       'i!  ^!i 


i 


\ 


!M 


1'  I 


92         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748. 


PAUT  in.:  oil.  V. 


Neusc  river,  spoke  a  kindred  language,  tlnis  establisliing  Capo 
Fear  as  tlie  soutlieni  limit  of  the  Algonkin  speeeli. 

In  Virginia,  the  same  language  was  heard  throngliout  the 
tribes  of  the  eastern  shore  and  the  villages  west  of  tlie  Chesa- 
peake, from  the  most  southern  tributaries  of  James  river  to 
the  Patuxent. 

The  Siiawnees  connect  the  south-eastern  Algonkins  with 
the  AVest.     The  basin  of  the  Cumberland  river  is  marked  by 
the  earliest  French  geographei's  as  the  home  of  this  restless 
nation.     A  part  of  them  afterward  had  their  "cabins"  and 
their  "  springs "  in  the  neighborhood  of  Winchester.     Their 
principal  l)ands  removed  from  their  hunting-fields  in  Kentucky 
to  the  head-waters  of  one  of  the  gieat  rivers  of  South  Caro- 
lina, and,  at  a  later  day,  an  encami)meiit  of  four  huiulred  and 
fifty  of  them,  who  had  been  straggling  in  the  woods  for  four 
yeai's,  was  found  not  far  north  of  the  head-watei-s  of  the  Mobile 
river,  on  their  way  to  the  comitry  of  the  Muskohgees.     It  Avas 
about  tlio  year  1(108  that  three  or  four  score  of  tlieir  families, 
with  tlie  consent  of   the  government  of    Pennsylvania,  left 
CaroHna  and  planted  themselves  on  the  Suscpiehannah.     Others 
followed,  and  when,  in  1732,  the  number  of  Indian  lighting 
men  in  Pennsylvania  was  estimated  at  seven  hundred,  one  half 
of  them  Avere  Sliawnee  emigrants.     So  desolate  was  the  Avilder- 
ness  that  a  vagabond  tribe  could   wander  undisturbed  from 
Cumberland  river  to  the  Alabama,  from  the  head-waters  of 
the  Santee  to  the  Suscpiehannah. 

Tlie  abode  of  the  i\Iianii8  was  more  stable.  "  My  forefather  " 
said  the  Miami  orator  Little  Turtle,  at  Greenville,  "  kindled  tl'ie 
lirst  lire  at  Detroit ,  from  thence  he  extended  his  lines  to  the 
head-waters  of  Scioto ;  from  thence  to  its  mouth  ;  from  thence 
down  the  Ohio  to  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash ;  and  from  thence 
c-o  Chicago,  on  Lake  Michigan.  These  are  the  boundaries 
within  which  the  prints  or  my  ancestors'  houses  are  everv- 
where  to  be  seen."  The  early  French  narratives  confimi  his 
words.  The  forests  beyond  Detroit  were  found  unoccupied,  or, 
it  may  be,  roamed  over  by  bands  too  feeble  to  attract  a  trader 
or  wm  a  missionary ;  the  Ottawas,  Algonkin  fugitives  from  the 
basm  of  the  magniticent  river  whose  name  commemorates 
them,  fled  to  the  bay  of  Saginaw,  and  took  possession  of  the 


I    !      '■! 


ALGONKINS,  DAKOTAS,  AND  IROQUOIS. 


93 


north  of  the  peninsula  as  of  a  derelict  country ;  yet  without 
disturbing  the  Mianiis,  who  occupied  its  southern  moiety. 

The  Illinois  were  kindred  to  the  Miainis,  and  their  countiy 
lay  l)etween  the  Wabash,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Mississippi.  Mar- 
quette came  upon  a  villa<!:e  of  them  on  tlie  Don  Moines,  but  its 
occupants  soon  withdrew  to  the  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
Kaskaslda,  Caholcia,  Peoria,  still  preserve  the  names  of  the 
principal  bands,  of  which  the  orignial  strength  has  been  greatly 
exaggerated.  The  vague  tales  of  a  considerable  population 
vanish  befcu-e  the  accurate  observation  of  the  French  mission- 
aries, who  found  in  the  wide  wilderness  of  Illinois  scarcely 
tlu-ee  or  four  villages.  On  the  discovery  of  America,  the  num- 
ber of  the  scattered  tenants  of  the  territory  which  now  forms 
the  states  of  Ohio  and  Michigan,  of  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  and 
Kentucky,  could  hardly  have  exceeded  eighteen  thousand. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Pottawa- 
tomies  had  crowded  the  Miamis  from  their  dwellings  at  Chi- 
cago ;  the  intnidei-8  came  from  the  islands  near  the  entrance  of 
Green  l)ay,  and  Avere  a  branch  of  the  great  nation  of  the  O jib- 
was.  That  nation  is  the  Algonkin  tribe  of  whose  dialect,  my- 
tliology,  traditions,  and  customs,  we  have  the  fullest  accounts. 
Ixiey  held  the  country  from  the  mouth  of  Oreen  bay  to  the 
head-waters  of  Lake  Superior,  and  were  early  visited  by  the 
French  at  Sault  St.  Mary  and  Chcgoimegon.  They  adopted 
into  their  ti-ibes  many  of  the  Ottawas  from  Upper  Canada,  and 
were  themselves  often  included  by  the  early  French  writers 
under  that  name. 

Ottawa  is  hue  the  Algonkin  woi-d  for  "  trader ; "  and  Mas- 
coutins  are  "dwellers  in  the  prairie."  The  latter  hardly  im- 
phesabandof  Indians  distmct  from  other  nations;  but  his- 
tory recognises,  as  a  separate  Algonkin  tribe  near  Green  bay, 
the  Menomonies,  who  were  found  there  in  1009,  wlio  retained 
their  ancient  territory  long  after  tlie  period  of  Frencli  and  of 
English  supremacy,  and  Avho  prove  their  high  anticputy  as  a  na- 
tion l)y  their  singular  dialect. 

South-M-est  of  tlie  Menomonies,  the  restless  Sacs  and  Foxes, 
ever  dreaded  by  the  French,  held  the  passes  from  Green  bay 
and  Fox  river  to  the  Mississippi,  and  with  insatiate  avidity 
roamed  doiian.tly  ovi^r  the  whole  country  l)etwceu  Wisconsin 


:|   I 


I 


■)■ 
ii; 


H         BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748. 


PART  III. ;  on.  V. 


and  the  upper  hranches  of  the  Illinois.  The  Shawnees  are  said 
to  have  an  affinity  with  this  nation ;  that  the  Kickapoos,  who 
established  them^jlves  by  conquest  in  the  north  of  Illinois,  are 
but  a  branch  of  it,  is  demonstrated  by  their  speech. 

The  tribes  of  the  Algonkin  family  were  scattered  over  a 
moiety,  or  perhaps  more  than  a  moiety,  of  the  territory  east  of 
the  Mis8issipi)i  and  south  of  the  St.  LawTence,  and  constituted 
about  one  half  of  the  original  population  of  tliat  territory. 

North-west  of  the  Sacs  and  the  Foxes,  west  of  the  Ojib- 
was,  bands  of  the  Sioux,  or  Dakotas,  had  encamped  on  prairies 
east  of  tlie  Mississippi,  vagrants  between  the  head-waters  of 
Lake  Superior  and  the  falls  of  St.  Anthony.     They  were  a 
branch  of  the  great  family  which,  dwelling  for  the  most  part 
west  of  the  Mississii)pi  and  the  Red  river,  extended  from  the 
Saskatchawan  to  lands  south  of  the  Arkansas.     French  traders 
discovered  their  wigwams  in  1659 ;  Hennepin  was  among  them, 
on  his  expedition  to  the  north ;  Joseph  Marest  and  another 
Jesuit  visited  them  in  1637,  and  again  in  1680.    There  seemed 
to  exist  a  hereditary  warfare  between  them  and  the  Ojibwas. 
Their  only  relations  to  the  colonists,  whether  of  France  or 
England,  were,  at  this  early  period,  accidental.      One  little 
connnunity  of  tlie  Dakota  family,  the  Winnebagoes,  dwelling 


pre- 


between  Green  bay  and  the  lake  that  bears  theii-  name,  ^._ 
ferred  rather  to  be  environed  by  Algonkins  than  to  stay  in 
the  dangerous  vicinity  of  their  own  kindred. 

The  midlands  of  Carolina  sheltered  the  Catawbas.  Their 
villages  included  the  Woccons,  and  their  language  is  thought 
to  belong  to  the  Dakota  stock.  The  oldest  enmneration  of 
them  was  made  in  1743,  and  gave  a  retuni  of  but  four  hun- 
dred. History  knows  them  chiefly  as  the  hereditary  foes  of 
the  Iroquois,  before  whose  prowess  and  numbers  they  dwindled 
away. 

The  nations  which  spoke  dialects  of  the  Iroquois,  or,  as  it 
has  also  been  called,  of  the  AVyandot,  were,  on  the  discovery  of 
America,  powerful  in  numbers,  and  diffused  over  a  wide  terri- 
tory. The  peninsula  enclosed  between  Lakes  Huron,  Erie,  and 
Ontario  had  been  the  dwelling-place  of  the  five  confederated 
tribes  of  the  Ilurons.  After  their  defeat  by  the  Five  Nations, 
a  part  descended  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  their  progeny  may  still 


IROQUOIS,  0IIER0KEE8,  UOIIEES.  95 

be  seen  near  Quebec;  a  part  were  adopted,  on  equal  terms 
into  the  tribes  of  their  conquerors;  the  Wyandots  fled  beyond 
Lake  Superior  and  hid  themselves  in  the  wastes  that  divided 
the  Ojibwas  from  their  western  foes.     In  1071,  they  retreated 
betore  the  Sionx,  and  made  their  home  iirst  at  St.  Mary's  and 
at  MichiHmaekinac,  and  afterward  near  the  post  of  Detroit 
Thus  the  Wyandots  within  our  bordera  were  emigrants  from 
Canada.     Leaving  to  the  Miamis  the  country  I)oyond  the  Mi- 
ami of  the  lakes,  tliey  gradually  acquired  a  claim  to  the  terri- 
tory from  that  river  along  Lake  Erie  to  the  western  boundary 
01:  iNew  York.  "^ 

The  institutions  of  the  l^ive  Nations  which  dwelt  in  ^v^est 
em_  New  York  will  be  described  hereafter.     The  number  of 
their  warriors  was  declared  by  the  French,  in  1000,  to  have 
been  two  thousand  two  hundred;  and,  in  1077,  this  was  con- 

st'r  th  ^  '"^  '^'''*'  '"''*  °"  1'""^^'"  *^  "'^"^"^^  *^^^^^ 

A  few  families  of  the  Iroquois,  who  raised  their  huts  round 
Fort  Frontenac  to  the  north  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  two  villages 
of  Iroquo.s  converts,  near  Montreal,  the  Cahnewagas  of  New 
Jingland  writers,  lived  in  amity  with  the  French 

At  the  south,  ih^  Chowan  and  the  NottoM-ay,  villages  of 
the  Iroquois  family,  as  well  as  the  Meherrin,  who  may  have 
been  a  i^mnant  of  Dakotas,  have  left  their  names  to  the  rivers 

;l?-nN  Vr^  1-"^''  *'^  T— -Ml-  -o«t  powerful 
tiibe  m  North  Carolina,  were  certainly  kindred  with  the  Five 
Nations.  In  1708,  their  fifteen  towns  still  occupied  the  upper 
country  on  the  Neuse  and  the  Tar.  ^^ 

The  mountaineers  of  aboriginal  America  were  the  Ciiero- 
KEEs,  who  occupied  the  upper  valley  of  the  Tennessee  river 
as  far  M-est  as  Muscle  Shoals,  and  the  highlands  of  Carolina 
Georgia,  and  Alabama-the  salubrious  and  most  picti^es  ue 

by  blue  h  lis  rising  beyond  hills,  of  which  the  lofty  points 
kmdle  with  the  early  light,  and  th.  overshado^Wng  rid's 
hk.  masses  of  clouds  envelop  the  valleys.     There  the  rofky 
chffs,  towering  m  naked  grandeur,  mock  the  lightning   Zd 

stoi-m,  there  the  gentler  slopes  m    ' 


i^corated  with  m 


iigno- 


' 


.■:l 


■■ 


in 


IM 


I  U-. 


11 
ill 


?       'I 

1.    if 


I 


mN  i 


1^:      i 


' 


I   I 


;!''.   .  iiii 


06 


BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    paht  hi.  ;  ou.  v. 


lias  and  llowering  forest-trees  and  roving  cliinl)erH,  and  i-ing 
with  the  i)erpetual  note  of  the  wliippoorwill ;  tliere  whole- 
some water  gnshes  profusely  from  the  earth  in  transparent 
8j)ring8 ;  snow-white  cascades  glitter  on  the  hill-sides ;  and  tlio 
rivers,  shallow  hut  i)k'asant  to  the  eye,  rush  through  narrow 
vales,  which  the  abundant  strawberry  crimsons  and  co])i)ice8 
of  rhododendron  and  Haming  azalea  adorn.     At  the  fall  of 
the  leaf,  the  ground  is  thickly  strewn  with  tlio  fruit  of  the 
hickory  and  the  chestnut.     The  fertile  soil  teems  with  luxu- 
riant herbage,  on  which  the  roebuck  fattens;  the  vivifying 
breeze  is  laden   wiih  fragrance:  and  daybreak  is  ever  wel- 
comed by  the  shrill  cries  of  the  social  night-hawk  and  the 
li(iuid  carols  of  the  mocldng-bird.     Through  this  lovely  region 
were  scattered  the  villages  of  the  Cherokees,  nearly  lif  ty  in 
number,  each  consisting  of  but  a  few  cabins,  erected  where  tiie 
bend  in  the  moinitain  stream  offered  at  once  a  defence  and  a 
strip  of  alluvial  soil  for  culture.     Their  towns  were  always  by 
the  side  of  some  creak  or  river,  and  they  loved  their  native 
laud ;  above  all,  they  loved  its  rivers,  the  Keowee,  the  Tuge- 
loo,  the  Flint,  and  the  branches  of  the  Tennessee.    Eunning 
waters,  inviting  to  the  bath,  tempting  the  angler,  alluring 
wild  fowl,  were  necessary  to  their  paradise.      The  organiza- 
tion of  their  language  has  a  common  character  witli  other  In- 
dian languages  east  of  the  Mississippi,  but  etymology  has  not 
been  able  to  discover  conclusive  analogies  between  the  roots  of 
their  words.     The  "  beloved  "  people  of  the  Cherokees  were 
a  nation  by  themselves.     "VYho  can  say  for  how  many  centu- 
ries, safe  in  their  nndiscovered   fastnesses,  they  had  decked 
their  war-chiefs  \vith  the  feathers  of  the  eagle's  tail,  and  lis- 
tened to  the  counsels  of  their  "  old  beloved  men  "  2    Who  can 
tell  how  often  the  waves  of  barbarous  migrations  may  have 
broken  harmlessly  against  their  cliffs  ? 

South-east  of  the  Cherokees  dwelt  the  Ijchees.  They 
claimed  the  country  above  and  lelow  Augusta,  and,  at  the 
earliest  period  respecting  wdiich  we  can  form  a  surmise,  seem 
not  to  have  extended  beyond  the  Chattahoochee;  yet  they 
boast  to  have  been  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  that  region.  They 
constituted  but  an  inconsiderable  band  in  the  Creek  confeder- 
acy, and  are  kno\vn  as  a  distinct  family,  not  from  political  or- 


NATCHEZ,  CniCKASAS,  CHOOTAS,  CREEKS.  97 

ganizatior^but  from  thoir  singularly  luarsh  and  guttural  lan- 
guage. When  first  discovered,  they  were  but\  rernn^ 
lavonng  tlie  conjecture  that,  from  the  North  and  West  tZ' 
may  have  pressed  upon  tribe  ;  that  successions  of  nation^  may 
have  been  exterminated  by  invading  nations ;  that  even  Ian 
giiages,  which  are  the  least  perishable  monument  of  the  sav- 
ages, may  have  become  extinct. 

The  Natchez  became  merged  in  tlie  same  confederacy 
but  they,  with  the  Taensa.,  are  known  as  a  distinct  nation' 
residing  in  scarcely  more  than  four  or  five  villages,  of  which 
the  largest  rose  near  the  banks  of  the   Mississippi.      The 
acute  Vater  perceived  signs  that  they  spoke  an  original  tongu 
and,  by  the  persevenng   curiosity  of  Gallatin,  it  is  eslab 
Iished  that  the  Natchez  were  distinguished  from  the    r^s 
aroiind  them  less  by  their  customs  and  the  degree  of  t^S 
civilization  than  by  their  language,  which,  as  fa^r  as  Ju^. 
sons  have  been  instituted,  has  no  etymological  affinity  ihh 
any  0  her  whatever,    Here  again  the  imagination  too  Cy 
nvents  t  leones;  and  the  tradition  has  been  widely  received 
^a   the  dominion  of  the  Natchez  once  extended  even  toihe 
Wabash.    History  knows  them  only  as  a  feeble  and  incon^d 
erable  nation,  who  in  the  eighteenth  century  attached  th  m 
selves  to  the  confederacy  of  the  Creeks. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Ucliees  and  the  Natchez  the 
country  south-east,  south,  and  west  of  the  Cherokoes  to  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  to  the  Missi^p^  ^nd  the 
confluence  of  the  Tennessee  and  Ohio,  was  in  the  possess  on 
of  one  great  family  of  nations,  of  whicli  the  language Tae 

iTn       Z  *V""'^  *'^  ''^^^^^^'  -"»  ^«  describeVby  Gal 
eracier         ^^^^^^^^-^^     I*  included  three  confed- 

The  country  bounded  on  the  Ohio  at  the  north,  on  the 

bend  ,n  the  Cumberland  river  to  the  Muscle  Shoals  of  the 

«io  state  of  Mississippi,  was  the  land  of  the  cheerful  brave 
CHroK.s.s,  the  faithful,  the  invincible  allies  of  the  Engt^^ 
"X^^^^"^'-'  were^in_the  upland  country,  Lth 


gives  birth  to  the  Yazoo  and  the  Tonibio-bee  wh 


III: 


ii 


VOL.   II. — 7 


ere  the  grass 


*    Ii 


I  ] 


!  . 


1=1 


ii!,    !'■ 

"I      i  1 


98 


BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    pautiii.;  on.  t. 


13    1 


i  r 


is  vorrlant  in  midwinter,  tlio  bluebird  and  tlio  r()l)in  are  hoard 
iu  l<'obruary;  tho  Hprings  of  pure  water  gurglo  up  tbroiigli 
wliito  saiidrt,  to  flow  through  natural  bowers  of  evergreen  hol- 
ly ;  and  the  maize  springs  profusely  from  the  generous  soil. 
The  region  is  as  happy  as  any  ])eneath  tlio  sun,  and  was  so 
dear  to  its  occupants  tiiat,  tliongh  not  numerous,  they  were 
in  its  defence  the  most  intrepid  warriors  of  the  South. 

Below  the  Cliickasas,  l)etween  the  Mississippi  and  the  Tom- 
bigbee,  was  the  land  of  the  Clioctas,  who  were  gathered  on  the 
c-afltem  frontier  into  compact  villages,  but  elsewhere  were  scat- 
tered through  the  interior  of  their  territory.  Dwelling  in 
plains  or  among  gentle  hills,  they  excelled  every  North  Ameri- 
can tribe  in  the  culture  of  com,  and  ]>laced  little  dependence 
on  the  chase.  Their  country  was  healthfid,  abounding  in 
brooks.  The  number  of  their  warriora  perhaps  exceeded  four 
thousand.  Their  dialect  of  the  Mobilian  so  nearly  resembles 
that  of  the  Cliickasas  that  they  almost  seemed  but  one  nation. 
The  Clioctas  were  allies  of  the  French,  yet  preserving  tlieir 
independence;  their  love  for  their  country  was  intense,  and 
they  too  contemned  danger  in  its  defence. 

The  ridgo  that  diWded  the  Tombigbee  from  the  Alabama 
was  the  line  that  separated  the  Choctas  from  the  groups  of 
tribes  Avhich  were  soon  united  in  the  confederacy  of  the 
CuEEKS  or  Muskohgees.  Their  territory,  including  all  Florida, 
reached,  on  the  north,  to  the  Cherokees ;  on  the  north-east  and 
east,  to  the  country  on  the  Savannah  and  to  the  Atlantic. 
Along  the  sea,  their  northern  limit  seems  to  have  exi;ended 
almost  to  Cape  Fear ;  at  least,  the  tribes  with  which  the  settlei-s 
at  Charleston  first  waged  war  are  enumerated  by  one  writer  as 
branches  of  the  Muskohgees.  Their  population,  spread  over  a 
fourfold  wider  tem'tory,  did  not  outnumber  that  of  the  Choc- 
tas. Their  towns  were;  situated  on  the  banks  of  beautiful 
creeks ;  the  watc/'s  of  their  bolf'  rivers,  from  the  Coosa  to  the 
Chattahoochee,  descended  apidly,  with  a  clear  current,  through 
liealthful  and  fertile  regions ;  they  were  careful  in  their  agri- 
culture, and,  before  going  to  war,  assisted  their  won  i  to 
plant.  In  Florida  they  welcomed  the  Spanish  missionaries ; 
and  throughout  tlieir  country  they  derived  so  much  bejiuHt 
from  the  arts  of  civilization  that  their  numbers  promised  to 


NU\fi;ER.S  OF  RED  ME^  WUES  DLSCOVEKED.  yg 

incmwc.     Being  placed  l.otwoen  the  Englisli  of  OaroHn.,,  tho 
trench  of  KmiH.  ma,  the  Spaniardn  of  Floriclu-hordcrin..  on 
hoC.hoctaH  the  Chlckasas,  an.l  tho  Cherokecs-they  were  es- 
teemed  as  the  most  important  iT.dian  nation  north  of  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico     They  rcnlily  ,.ave  Mu.  to  fngitives  from  other 
tnbes ;  and  their  speech  became  ho  modified  that,  vWth  radic-d 
rescnhlances  it  has  the  ^videst  departure  from  its  kindred  dia- 
lects    The  Yamassees,  sometimes  called  the  Savannahs,  were 
one  of  their  hands ;  the  Seminoles  of  Florida  were  but  '^  wild 
tTchalr"  ^^^f^'^'^'^-^'cy'  v^l^o  neglected  agriculture  for 

Such  is  a  synopsis  of  tho  American  nations  east  of  tho 

gansetts,  the  Ilhno.s-boasted  of  the  superior  strength  of  tlu^ 
fcH-mer  condition ;  and,  from  won<ler,  from  fear,  fr^m  the  m- 
bition  of  exciting  surprise,  eariy  travellers  often  repeated  the 
exaggerations  of  savage  vanity.  The  Ilurons  of  rppefo.t  da 
were  thought  to  number  many  more  than  thirty  thousanrper 
haps  oven  hfty  thousand,  souls;  yet,  according  to  T\Ze 

thousand  In  the  heart  of  a  ^vnlderness  a  few  cabins  seemed 
bke  a  city;  and  to  the  pilgrim,  who  had  walked  for  weeks 
withou   meeting  a  human  being,  a  temtory  would  appear  wel 

Tt^IlZ^  north-western  Massachusetts  and  much 

t  on  W  .ft     A       ^  ^^f'  ''"^'"''''^  ^P^"  '^  I'^d^-'^n  emigral 
hon  long  after  America  began  to  be  colonized  by  Europeans 

tts?eror;n^:T^^         °^^*'^^^  ''''  countenance  nor  the 

ZediXn"""""':  'r^"  ^"^'^^  ^^^«««  J'^"--!  is  pre- 
served by  Le  Clercq,  describes  the  "only  large  villajre"  as  con 

CZ  sZ Z  ^'^^'* T'-'-'''  ^^"^^ ^  ^^^^-  RaslSim^ird 
mor^  tlnT  .  ?r  ^'''°  '^^■'^^^'^  ^"^"^^''^^^  fi^^«.  kindled  for 
made  Zr  aZlT""  /""""'   ''''''  ""^^^^^^^-^  -^- 

ap;:!^!^::^  Xt^^^^^^       -  through 

,  i-Ly  .(prccent  tiiuir  vocation  aa  a  chase 


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100       BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.    part  m. ;  on.  v. 

after  a  savage,  that  was  scarce  ever  to  be  found ;  and  they 
could  establisli  Imrdl}'  five,  or  even  tliree,  villages  in  the  whole 
region,     iveutiicky,  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Sha^vnees,  re- 
mained the  park  of  the  Cherokoes.    The  banished  tribe  easily 
fled  up  the  valley  of  the  Cumberland  river,  to  find  a  vacant 
region  in  the  highlands  of  Carolina ;  and  a  part  of  them  for 
years  roved  to  and  fro  in  wildernesses  west  of  the  Cherokees. 
On  early  maps  the  low  country  from  the  Mobile  to  Florida  is 
marked  as  vacant.     The  oldest  reports  from  Georgia  dwell  on 
the  absence  of  Indians  from  the  vicinity  of  Savannah,  and  will 
not  admit  thai  there  were  more  than  a  few  within  four  hun- 
dred miles.     There  are  hearsay  and  vague  accounts  of  Indian 
war-parties  composed  of  many  hundreds ;  those   who  wrote 
from  knowledge  furnish  means  of  comparison  and  con-ection. 
The  population  of  the  Five  Nations  may  have  varied  from  ten 
to  thirteen  thousand  ;  and  their  warriors  roamed  as  conquerors 
from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Carohna,  from  the  Kennebec  to  the  Ten- 
nessee.   Very  great  uncertainty  must  indeed  attend  any  esti- 
mate of  the  original  number  of  Indians  east  of  the  Mississippi 
and  south  of  the  St.  LaAvrence  and  the  chain  of  lakes.     We 
shall  approach,  and  perhaps  rather  exceed,  a  just  estimate  of 
their  numbers  at  the  spring-time  of  English  coloniijation,  if  to 
the  various  tribes  of  the  Algoukin  race  we  allow  about  ninety 
thousand ;  of  the  eastern  Dakotas  less  than  three  thousand ;  of 
the  Iroquois,  including  their  southern  kindred,  about  seven- 
teen thousand ;  of  the  Catawbas,  three  tliousand ;  of  the  Chero- 
kees, twelve  thousand ;  of  the  Mobihan  conf tideracies  and  tribes 
— that  is,  of  the  Chickasas,  Choctas,  and  Creeks,  including  the 
Seminoles — fifty  thousand ;  of  the  lichees,  one  thousand ;  of 
the  Natchez,  four  thousand :  in  all,  it  may  be,  not  far  from 
one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  souls. 

In  1883,  there  remain  of  all  t  le  nations  that  formerly  oc- 
cupied the  present  area  of  the  United  States  south  of  Alaska 
a  few  thousand  less  than  existed  in  the  sixteenth  century  east 
of  the  Mississippi. 


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LANGUAGES  AND  MANNERS  OF  THE  BED  MEN. 


101 


CHAPTER  TI. 

THE   LAU0FAOE8   AND  MANNERS  OF  THE  liED  HEN. 

No  horde  of  red  men  has  been  eanght  in  its  fli^t  wrestlin<~ 
^ith  natare  to  extort  from  her  the  a,?  of  expi-essinH  o  "S 
by  ges  nres  and  sounds.  A  tribe  has  no  more  been  fo^d 
without  a  langnage  tlian  without  eyesight  or  memory 

The  Amencan  savage  has  tongne  and  palate  and  Kps  and 
throat;  the  ix,wer  to  utter  flowing  sounds,  the  power  to  hss 
henee  the  primitive  sounds  are  essentially  the  ™e  and  m,v' 
almost  all  be  expressed  by  the  alphabet  of  Eu«>pZ  1™    The 
tnbes  yaiy  ,n  their  choice  of  sounds.-  the  Oneida    alwnv 
changed  the  letter  ,•;  the  Algonkins  have  no  /  ™t  Iro'S 
family  never  use  the  semivowel  ,„,  or  the  Labials     The  ChZ 
kees  are  destitute  of  the  labials,  but  employ  the  semivowd! 
Of  the    everal  dmleets  of  the  Iroquois,  that  of  the  Oneidas  t 
10  most  soft,  being  the  only  one  that  admits  the  letter  /• 
hat  of  he  Senecas  is  nidest  and  most  energetic.    The  AW^ 
kin  dialec  s   especially  those  of  the  Abcnakis,  heap  up  con 
sonants  with  prodigal  harshness;  the  Iroquois  abLd  in  a 

:Z7Zof  Zt'/"  '"^  ^"-'*-'  «W  syllable  Zl 
inm  a  voiicl.    Lut  before  acquaintance  with  EuroneaiK  ha 
one  of  them  had  discriminated  the  sounds  which     eSicu 
ated:  e,.st  of  the  Mississippi  there  was  no  alpha  et    and  the 
only  mode  of  writing  was  by  nide  imitations  and  symbo's 

Each  langu,age,  while  it  .abounded  in  words  to  de  innate 
eveo-^object  of  oxiierience,  for  "spiritual  mattei."  wtT  • 
It  had  no  name  for  continence  or  justice,  for  gmtitnde  or  m! 
ness.  It  req  iired,  said  Loskiel,  the  labor  of  years  to  make  the 
Delaware  dialect  capable  of  expressing  absti  Jt  thougir 
This  materiuhsni  in  the  use  of  words  gave  jScturesque 


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102      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    paktiii.;  cu.  vi. 

l)rilliaiicy  to  Americiui  discourse.  Prospenty  was  as  a  bright 
sun  or  a  cloudless  sky ;  to  establish  peace  was  to  plant  a  tree 
or  to  bury  the  tomahawk  ;  to  offer  jiresents  as  a  consolation  to 
mourners  was  to  cover  the  grave  of  the  departed ;  griefs  and 
hardships  were  thorns  of  the  prickly  pear.  Especially  the 
style  of  the  Five  Nations  abounded  in  noble  metaphors,  and 
glo\ved  with  allegory. 

The  Indian  does  not  separate  the  parts  of  speech  from  one 
another ;  he  expresses  a  complex  idea  by  grouping  its  sepa- 
rate elements  together  in  one  conglomerate  word.  The  nide 
process  is  not  a  j^erfect  synthesis,  as  in  the  conjugation  of  a 
Latin  verb.  It  has  with  greater  exactness  been  said  of  the 
red  man,  that  he  glues  together  the  words  exj)ressing  subject 
and  object  and  number  and  person  and  case  and  time,  and 
yet  many  more  relations.  This  is  the  distinguishing  nuirk  of 
American  speech  ;  it  pervaded  the  dialects  of  the  Irocpiois, 
of  the  Algonkin,  and  the  Cherokee.  When  a  new  object  was 
presented  to  an  Indian,  he  would  inquire  its  use  and  form  for 
it  a  name  which  might  include  within  itself  an  entire  delini- 
tion.  So  when  Eliot,  in  his  version  of  the  Bible,  translated 
hieeliny,  the  word  ^vhich  he  was  compelled  to  frame  was  of 
eleven  syllables. 

The  nouns  implying  relation,  wTote  Brebeuf,  always  in- 
clude the  signification  of  one  of  the  three  persons  of  the 
possessive  pronoun.  The  missionaries  could  not  translate  the 
doxology  literally,^  but  chanted  among  the  Ilurons :  ''  Glory 
be  to  our  Father,  and  to  his  Son,  and  to  their  Holy  Ghost." 

In  like  manner  the  American  languages  wanted  terms  to 
express  generalizations  and  classes.  The  forests  abounded  in 
many  kinds  of  oak  :  the  Algonkins  had  special  names  for 
each  of  them,  but  no  generic  wurd  including  them  all. 

"  The  sociableness  of  the  nature  of  man  ajipeai's  in  the 
wildest  of  them.''  To  red  men  returning  to  their  family  no 
one  would  offer  hindrance,  "  thus  confessing  the  sweetness  of 
their  homes,"  They  love  society,  and  tlie  joining  together  of 
houses  and  to\vns,  With  long  poles  lixed  in  the  ground,  and 
bent  toward  each  other  at  the  toj),  covered  with  lurch  or  chest- 
nut bark,  and  hung  on  the  inside  with  embroidered  mats, 
lia\-iug  no  door  l>ut  a  loose  skin,  no  lieailh  but  the  ground,  no 


LANGUAGES  AMD  MANXERS  OF  THE  RED  MEN.      103 

chimney  but  an  opening  in  the  roof,  the  wigwam  was  quicklv 
constructed  and  easily  removed.  Its  size,  whether  round  or 
oblong  was  m  proportion  to  the  number  of  famihes  that  were 
to  dwell  m  It;  and  commonly  in  one  smoky  cell  the  whole  com- 
munity-men, children,  and  women-were  huddled  together 
careless  of  cleanliness,  and  making  no  privacy  of  actions  of 
wJjicb  some  irrational  animals  seem  ashamed 

Of  the  savage,  license  to  gratify  his  aninud  instincts  seemed 
he  sys  em  o    morals.     The  idea  of  chastity  as  a  social  duty 
v.as  but  feebly  developed.     And  yet,  wrote  Eoger  WilKams 
God  hath  planted  in  the  hearts  of  the  wildest  of  the  sonnes 
of  men  a  high  and  honorable  esteem  of  the  marriage-bed 
insonmch  that_  they  universally  submit  unto  it,  and  hold  its 
V 10  ation  abominable."    Neither  might  marriages  be  contracted 
bet^yeen  kmdi-ed  of  near  degree;  the  Irocpois  might  choose 
a  wife  of  the  same  tribe  with  himself,  but  not  of"  the  same 
cabin  ;   the  Algonkin  must  look  beyond  those  who  used  the 
same  family  symbol ;  the  Cherokee  would  at  one  and  the  same 
tune  inarry  a  mother  and  her  daughter,  but  would  never  marry 
his  own  immediate  kindred.  -^ 

On  forming  an  engagement,  the  bridegroom,  or,  if  he  were 
poor,  his  friends  and  neighbors,  made  a  present  to  the  bride's 
father,  of  whom  no  dowry  was  expected.  The  acceptance  of 
the  i^esents  perfected  the  contract;  the  Mife  w".  purchased  ; 
and,  for  a  season  at  least,  the  husband,  surrendering  his  gains 
as  a  hunter  to  her  family,  had  a  home  in  her  fathers  lod^e 

Even  m  marriage  the  Indian  abhorred  constraint;  from 
Florida  to  theSt.  La^vTence  polygamy  was  permitted,  though 
at  the  north  it  was  not  common;  and  the  wilderness  could 
show  wigwams  where  "couples  had   lived   together  thirty 
fory  years  '     Love  did  not  always  light  his  happiest  torch 
at  the  nuptials  of  the  children  of  nature,  and  marriage  had 
for  them  its  sorrows  and  its  crimes.     The  infidelities  of  the 
husband  sometimes  drove  the  helpless  wife  to  suicide :  the 
faithless  wife  had  no  protector;  her  husband  might  at  his 
will  insult  or  disfigure  her  or  take  her  life.     Divorce  took 
place  without  formality  by  a  sim],le  separation  or  desertion, 
and    M-here  there  was  no  olispring,  was  of  easy  occurrence. 
Children  were  the  strongest  bund ;  for,  if  the  mother  was 


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III      "A'i 


104      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748. 


PART  III. ;  on.  vr. 


discarded,  it  was  the  unwritten  law  of  the  red  man  that  she 
sliould  retain  those  whom  she  had  borne. 

Child-bearing  to  the  Indian  mother  was  comparatively  easy 
and  speedy.     "  In  one  quarter  of  an  hour  a  woman  would  be 
merry  in  the  house,  and  delivered,  and  merry  againe;  and  with- 
in two  days,  abroad ;  and,  after  four  or  five  dayes,  at  worke." 
The  woman  who  uttered  complaints  or  groans  was  esteemed 
worthy  to  be  but  the  mother  of  cowards.     Yet  death  some- 
times followed.    The  pregnant  woman  continued  her  usual 
toils,  bore  her  wonted  burdens,  followed  her  family  even  in  its 
winter  rambles.    How  helpless  the  Indian  infant,  born  with- 
out shelter  amid  storms  and  ice !    But  fear  nothing  for  him : 
the  sentiment  of  maternity  is  at  his  side,  and  so  lone-  as  his 
mother  breathes  he  is  safe.     The  squaw  loves  her  child  with 
instinctive  passion ;  and,  if  she  does  not  manifest  it  by  lively 
caresses,  her  tenderness  is  real,  wakeful,  and  constant.    No 
savage  mother  ever  trusted  her  babe  to  a  hireling  nurse ;  no 
savage  mother  ever  put  away  her  own  child  to  suckle  that  of 
another.     To  the  cradle,  consisting  of  thin  pieces  of  light 
wood,  and  gayly  ornamented  with  quills  of  the  porcupine  and 
beads  and  rattles,  the  infant  is  firmly  attached,  and  carefully 
wrapped  in  furs  ;  and  thus  swathed,  its  back  to  the  mother's 
back,  is  borne  as  the  topmost  burden— its  dark  eyes  now 
cheerfully  flashing  light,  now  accompanying  with  tears  the 
wailings  which  the  plaintive  melodies  of  the  carrier  cannot 
hush.     Or,  while  the  squaw  toils  in  the  field,  she  hangs  her 
child,  as  spring  does  its  blossoms,  on  the  boughs  of  a  tree, 
that  it  may  be  rocked  by  breezes  from  the  land  of  souls,  and 
soothed  to  sleep  by  the  lullaby  of  the  birds.     Does  the  mother 
die,  the  nursling— such  is  Indian  compassion— shares  her  grave. 
On  quitting  the  cradle,  the  children  are  left  nearly  naked 
in  the  cabin,  to  grow  hardy  and  learn  the  use  of  their  limbs. 
Juvenile  sports  are  the  same  everywhere;  children  invent 
them  for  themselves ;  and  the  traveller,  who  finds  through 
the  wide  world  the  same  games,  may  rightly  infer  that  an 
innate  power  instructs  childhood  in  its  amusements.     There 
is  no  domestic  government;    the  young   do  as   they  will. 
They  are  never  earnestly  reproved,  injured,  or  beaten;  a 
dash  of  cold  water  in  the  face  is  their  heaviest  punish- 


LANGUAGES  AND  MANNERS  OF  THE  RED  MEN.   105 

merit.    If  they  assist  in  the  labors  of  the  household,  it  is  as 
a  pastime,  not  as  a  charge.     Yet  they  show  respect  to  the 
chiefs,  and  defer  with  docility  to  those  of  their  cabin.    The 
attachment  of  savages  to  their  offspring  is  extreme ;  and  they 
cannot  bear  separation  from  them.     Hence  every  attempt  at 
founding  schools  for  their  children  was  a  failure ;  a  missionary 
would  gather  a  little  flock  about  him,  and  of  a  sudden,  writes 
Le  Jeune,  "my  birds  flew  away."    From  their  insufiicient  and 
irregular  supplies  of  clothing  and  food,  they  learn  to  endure 
hunger  and  ngorous  seasons;  of  themselves  they  become  fleet 
of  foot  and  skilful  in  swimming ;  their  courage  is  fed  by  tales 
respecting  their  ancestors,  till  they  burn  with  a  love  of  glory 
to  be  acquired  by  valor  and  address.     So  soon  as  the  child  can 
grasp  the  bow  and  arrow,  they  are  in  his  hand ;  and,  as  there 
IS  joy  in  the  wigwam  at  his  birth,  and  his  first  cutting  of  a 
tooth  so  a  festival  is  kept  for  his  earHest  success  in  the  chase, 
ihe  Indian  young  man  is  educated  in  the  school  of  nature. 
1  Jie  influences  l)y  which  he  is  surrounded  kindle  within  him 
the  passion  for  war:  as  he  grows  up,  he  in  his  turn  begins  the 
war-song,  of  which  the  echoes  never  die  a^vay  on  the  bound- 
less plains  of  the  West;  he  travels  the  war-path,  in  search  of 
an  encounter  with  an  enemy,  that  he  too,  at  the  great  war- 
dance  and  feast  of  his  band,  may  boast  of  his  exploits ;  may 
enumerate  his  gallant  deuls  by  the  envied  feathers  of  the  war 
eagle  that  decorate  his  hair ;  and  keep  the  record  of  his  woimds 
by  shining  marks  of  vermilion  on  his  sldn. 

The  savages  are  proud  of  idleness.     At  home  they  do  little 
but  cross  their  anns  and  sit  listlessly,  or  engage  in  games  of 
chance,  or  meet  in  council,  or  sing  and   eat  and   play  and 
sleep.     The  greatest  toils  of  the  men  were  to  perfect  the  pali- 
sades of  the  forts;  to  repair  their  cabins;  to  manufacture  a 
boa  out  of  a  tree  by  the  use  of  fire  and  a  stone  hatchet ;  to  get 
ready  instruments  of  war  or  the  chase ;  and  to  adorn  their  per- 
sons   Woman  is  the  laborer.    The  food  that  is  raised  from  the 
earth  is  the  fruit  of  her  industry.     With  no  instniment  but  a 
mattock  of  wood  or  flint-stone,  a  shell,  or  a  shoulder-blade  of 
the  buffalo,  she  plants  the  maize  and  the  beans.     She  drives 
the  blackmrds  from  the  cornfield,  breaks  the  weeds,  and,  in  due 
season,  gathers  the  harvest.     She  pounds  the  parched  com, 


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* 

106      BKITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  m. ;  en.  vi. 

dries  tlie  buffalo  meat,  and  prepares  for  winter  the  store  of 
wild  fruits ;  she  brings  home  the  game  which  her  husband  has 
killed ;  she  carries  the  wood,  and  draws  the  water,  and  spreads 
the  repast.     If  the  chief  constructs  the  keel  of  the  canoe,  it 
is  woman  who  stitclies  the  bark  with  split  ligaments  of  the 
pine  root,  and  sears  the  seams  with  resinous  gum.    If  the  men 
prepare  the  poles  for  the  wigwam,  it  is  woman  who  builds  it, 
and,  in  times  of  journeyings,  transports  it  on  her  shoulders. 
The  red  men  east  of  the  Mississijipi  had  no  calendar  of 
their  own ;  their  languages  have  no  word  for  year,  and  they 
reckoned  time  by  the  return  of  snow  or  the  springing  of  the 
llowers ;  their  months  were  named  from  that  winch  the  earth 
produces  in  them ;  and  their  almanac  is  kept  by  the  birds, 
whose  flight  announces  the  progress  of  the  seasons.      The 
brute  creation  gave  them  warning  of  the  coming  storm  ;  the 
motion  of  the  sun  marked  the  horn*  of  the  day ;  and  the  dis- 
tinctions of  time  were  noted,  not  in  numbers,  but  in  words 
that  breathe  the  grace  of  nature. 

The  aboriginal  tribes  of  the  United  States  depended  for 
food  on  the  chase,  fisheries,  and  agriculture.     They  kept  no 
herds ;  they  never  were  shepherds.     The  bison  is  difficult  to 
tame,  and  the  use  of  its  milk,  of  which  its  female  yields  little, 
was  unknown.     The  moose,  the  bear,  the  deer,  and  at  the 
"West  the  buffalo,  Ijesides  smaller  game  and  fowl,  were  pur- 
sued wnih  arrows  tipped  with  hartshorn,  or  eagles'  claws,  or 
pointed  stones.     With  nets  and  spears  fish  were  taken,  and 
were  cured  by  smoke.      Wild  fruits  and  abundant  berries 
were  a  resource  in  their  season;  and  troops  of  girls,  with 
baskets  of  bark,  would  gather  the  native  strawljerry.     But  all 
the  tribes  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  except  remote  ones  on 
the  north-east  and  the  north-west,  ^vere  at  once  himters  and 
tillers  of  the  ground.     Wheat  or  rye  would  have  been  a 
useless  gift  to  the  Indian,  who  had  neither  plough  nor  sickle. 
The  maize  springs  luxuriantly  from  a  warm,  new  field,  and 
in  tiie  rich  soil,  with  little  aid  from  culture,  outstrips  the 
weeds ;   bears,  not  thirty,  not  fifty,  but  a  thousand-fold ;  if 
once  dry,  is  hurt  neither  by  heat  nor  frost;   may  be  pre- 
served in  a  pit  or  a  cave  for  years,  aye,  and  for  centuries; 
is  gathered  from  the  field  by  the  hand,  without  knife  or  reap- 


LANGUAGES  AND  MANNERS  OF  THE  RED  MEN.      iQ'i 

ing-hook ;  and  becomes  nutritious  food  by  a  simple  r^astin*^ 
before  a  fire.  A  little  of  its  parched  meal,  with  water  from 
the  brook,  was  often  a  dinner  and  supper;  and  the  wamor, 
with  a  small  supply  of  it  in  a  basket  at  his  back,  or  in  a  leath- 
ern girdle,  and  with  his  Ijow  and  arrows,  is  ready  for  travel  at 
a  moment's  warning.  Tobacco  was  not  forgotten ;  and  the 
cultivation  of  the  bean,  and  the  traihng  plant  which  we  have 
learned  of  them  to  call  the  squash,  completed  their  husbandry^ 
They  seem  not  to  have  made  nmch  use  of  salt,  but  they  knew 
how  to  ol)tahi  it  by  evaporation. 

^      During  the  mild  season  there  may  have  been  little  suffer- 
mg.    But  thrift  was  wanting;  the  stores  collected  by  the  in- 
dustry of  the  women  were  squandered  in  festivities.     The 
hospitality  of  the  Indian  has  rarely  been  questioned.    He  will 
take  his  rest  abroad,  that  he  may  give  up  his  own  skin  or  mat 
of  sedge  to  his  guest.     The  stranger  enters  his  cabin,  by  day 
or  by  night,  without  asking  leave,  and  is  entertained  as  freely 
as  a  thrush  or  a  blackbird  that  regales  himself  on  the  luxuries 
of  the  fruitful  grove.     Nor  is  the  traveller  questioned  as  to 
the  purpose  of  his  visit;  he  chooses  his  time  to  deliver  his 
message.     Festivals,  too,  were  common.     But  what  could  be 
more  miserable  than  the  tribes  of  the  North  and  North-west 
in  the  depth  of  winter,  suffering  from  an  annual  famine' 
driven  by  the  intense  cold  to  sit  indolently  in  the  smoke 
round  the  fire  in  the  cabin,  and  fast  for  days  together? 

Famine  gives  a  terrible  energy  to  the  brutal  part  of  our 
nature.  A  shipwreck  will  make  cannibals  of  ci^dlized  men  • 
a  retreating  army  abandons  its  wounded.  The  hunting  tribes 
had  the  affections  of  men,  but  among  them  extremity  of  want 
produced  like  results.  On  the  journey  through  the  wilderness, 
It  provisions  failed,  the  feeble  were  left  behind,  or  their  life 
was  shortened  by  a  blow\ 

For  diseases  natural  remedies  were  prescribed.  Sometimes 
a  vapor  bath  v  is  prepared  in  a  tent  covered  with  skins,  and 
wanned  by  means  of  hot  stones;  decoctions  of  bark,  or  roots, 
or  herbs,  were  used ;  but  those  who  lingered  with  hoi^eless 
Illness,  or  were  helpless  from  age,  Avere  sometimes  neglected, 
and  sometimes  put  to  death. 

The  clothing  of  the  natives  was,  in  summer,  but  a  piece  of 


I  B     I 
'     I 

! 


IV 


'i 


■'  '  f, 


ir  'j 


\>  "\ 


m 


108      BRITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    PABTni.;  on.  vi. 

8kin,  like  an  apron  round  the  waist ;  in  winter,  a  bear-skin,  or, 
more  commonly,  robes  made  of  the  skins  of  the  fox  and  the 
beaver.     Their  feet  were  protected  by  soft  moccasons,  and  to 
these  were  bound  the  broad  snow-shoes,  on  which,  though 
cumbersoine  to  the  novice,  the  practiced  hunter  could  leap 
like  the  roe.     Of  the  women,  head,  arms,  and  legs  were  un- 
covered ;  a  mat  or  a  skin,  neatly  prepared,  tied  over  the 
shoulders  and  fastened  to  the  waist  by  a  girdle,  extended  from 
the  neck  to  the  knees.     They  glittered  with  tufts  of  elk-hair, 
dyed  in  scarlet,  and  strings  of  shells  were  their  pearls  and  dia- 
monds.    The  summer  garments,  of  the  skins  of  the  moose  and 
deer,  were  painted  of  many  colors,  and  the  fairest  feathers  of 
the  turkey,  fastened  by  threads  made  from  wild  hemp  and 
nettle,  Avere  curiously  wrought  into  mantles.     The  claws  of 
the  grizzly  bear  formed  a  proud  collar  for  a  war  chief;  a 
piece  of  an  enemy's  scalp,  with  a  tuft  of  long  hair,  painted 
red,  glittered  on  the  stem  of  his  war-pipe ;  the  wing  of  a  red 
bird,  or  the  beak  and  plumage  of  a  raven,  decorated  liis 
locks;  the  skin  of  a  rattlesnake  was  worn  round  the  arm  of 
their  chiefs ;  the  skin  of  the  polecat,  bound  round  the  leg, 
was  their  order  of  the  garter,  emblem  of  noble  daring.     A 
warrior's  dress  was  often  a  history  of  his  deeds.     His  skin  was 
tattooed  with  figures  of  animals,  of  flowers,  of  leaves,  and 
painted  with  shining  colors. 

Some  had  the  nose  tipped  with  blue,  the  eyebrows,  eyes, 
and  cheeks  tinged  with  black,  and  the  rest  of  the  face  red ; 
others  had  black,  red,  and  blue  stripes  drawn  from  the  ears  to 
the  mouth ;  others  had  a  broad,  black  band,  like  a  ribbon,  ex- 
tending from  ear  to  ear  across  the  eyes,  with  smaller  bands  on 
the  cheeks.  "When  they  made  visits,  and  when  they  assem- 
bled in  council,  they  painted  themselves  brilliantly,  delight- 
ing especially  in  vermilion. 


II    i>  I'l 


I    ill 


POLITY  AND  RELIGION  OF  THE  RED  MEN.         109 


CHAPTER  VII. 

POLITY  AND  EELIGION  OF  THE  BED  MEN. 

In  the  tribes  with  which  the  early  colonists  came  in  contact 
there  was  not  only  no  written  law,  there  was  no  formalized  tra- 
ditionary expression  of  law.  Authority  over  them  rested  on 
opinion,  of  wh'.ch  the  motives  were  never  embodied  in  words, 
and  which  gained  validity  only  through  unquestioned  usage! 
Their  forms  of  government  gi-ew  out  of  their  instincts  and 
their  wants,  and  were  everywhere  nearly  the  same.  Without 
a  distinct  settlement  of  succession  in  the  magistracy  by  in- 
heritance or  election,  the  selection  was  made  harmoniously 
through  the  preponderating  influence  of  personal  qualities. 

The  wil<T  man  hates  restraint,  and  loves  to  do  what  is  right 
in  his  own  eyes.     "  The  HHnois,"  writes  Marest,  "  are  absolute 
mastera  of  themselves,  subject  to  no  law."    The  Delawares,  it 
was  said,  "are,  in  general,  wholly  unacquainted  with  civil  laws 
and  proceedings,  nor  have  any  kind  of  notion  of  civil  judica- 
tures, of  persons  being  arraigned  and  tried,  condemned  or  ac- 
quitted."    Strings  of  wampum  did  the  oflice  of  money  among 
them,  and  had  a  fixed  value  like  coin  among  white  men.     Ex- 
changes were  often  but  a  reciprocity  of  gifts;  but  they  had 
commerce  and  debts,  though  arrests  and  imprisonments,  law- 
yers and  sheriffs,  were  unknown.     Each  man  was  his  own  pro- 
tector; and,  as  there  was  no  public  justice,  each  man  became 
his  own  avenger.     In  ca^e  of  death  by  violence,  the  departed 
shade  could  not  rest  till  appeased  by  a  retaliation.   His  kindred 
would  "  go  a  thousand  miles,  for  the  purijose  of  revenge,  over 
hills  and  mountains ;  through  cane-swamps,  fuU  of  briers ;  over 
broad  lakes,  rapid  rivers,  and  deep  creeks;  and  all  the  way 
endangered  by  poisonous  snakes,  exposed  to  the  extremities  of 


f<W:l 


r 
■i 


n 


i 


i^    ) 


110     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.    PARTm.;  on.  vii. 

beat  and  cold,  to  hunger  and  thirat."  Blood  having  onco  been 
shed,  the  nile  of  reeiprocitj  involved  fann'ly  in  the  mortal 
strife  against  family,  tribe  against  tribe,  often  continuing  from 
generation  to  gener,V;ion.  Yet  mercy  could  make  itself  heard ; 
and  peace  might  be  restored  by  atoning  [)re8ent8,  if  they  were 
enough  to  cover  up  the  graves  of  the  dead. 

Notwithstanding  the  unifomi  aspect  of  savage  life,  there 
was  among  them  some  distribution  of  pursuits.     There  seems 
reason  to  beheve  that  persons  who  had  singular  skill  in  shapino- 
the  implements  of  which  the  Indians  knew  the  use,  employed 
themselves  specially  in  their  manufacture.     Flint-stone  ham- 
mers were  found  in  the  region  near  Xake  Superior ;  but  the 
miners  had  no  tool  with  Avhich  they  could  divide  pure  copper, 
nor  had  they  learned  to  melt  it,  nor  did  they  know  how  to 
extract  the  metal  from  the  ore.     They  could  only  scale  its  thin 
leaves,  and,  after  folding  them  together,  give  them  consistency 
by  the  blows  of  the  hammer.     They  remained  in  the  condi- 
tion of  man  before   the  discovery  of  metals.     Copper  was 
prized  as  an  ornament,  and,  with  the  mica  of  North  Carolina, 
has  been  found  in  mounds  ahke  at  the  south  and  the  north 
of  the  Mississippi  valley. 

Among  the  red  men  the  ties  of  relationship  were  ^videly 
extended.     Undivided  families  had  a  common  emblem,  which 
designated  all  their  members  as  effectually  as  with  us  the  name. 
In  the  choice  of  a  wife  there  were  interdicted  degrees  of  con- 
sanguinity, and  marriage  between  dwellers  in  the  same  cabin 
was  forbidden.     They  held  the  bonds  of  brotherhood  so  dear 
that  a  brother  commonly  paid  the  debt  of  a  deceased  brother, 
and  assumed  his  revenge  and  his  perils.    There  were  no  beggara 
among  them,  no  fatherless  children  unprovided  for.     Those 
who  housed  together,  Inmted  together,  roamed  together,  fought 
together,  constituted  a  family.     Danger  from  neighbors  led^to 
alKances  and  confederacies,  just  as  pride,  which  is  a  pervadino- 
element  in  Indian  character,  led  to  subdivision.     Of  affinity, 
as  proved  by  a  common  language,  the  Algonkin,  the  Iroquois, 
the  Dakota,  the  Mobilian,  each  was  alike  umnindful.    No  one 
oi  them  had  a  name  embracing  all  its  branches. 

As  the  tribe  was  but  a  union  of  families,  the  head  of  the 
family  was  its  natural  chief.     The  dascent  through  the  female 


POLITY  ANT)  RELIGION  OF  THE  RED  MEN.  m 

line  was  the  nile  as  seen  iti  Vi-:inia,  among  the  Five  Nations 
tlio  Crt-oks,  and  the  Nateliez.     The  colleagne  of  Canoniens,  the 
NarragunHi'tt,  was  Iu'h  nepliew.    The  hereditary  right  wa,s  niodi- 
fied  by  opinion,  which  could  crowd  a  civil  chief  into  retire- 
ment, and  select  his  successor.     The  organization  of  the  savage 
conmnuiities  was  as  with  us  at  a  siwntaneous  public  meeting, 
where  opim'on  in  advance  designates  the  i)nncij)al  actoi-s ;  or,' 
as  at  the  death  of  the  head  o.'  a  large  family,  oi^nion  within 
the  family  selects  the  best  iitted  of  its  surviving  members  to 
settle  its  affairs.     Doubtless  the  succession  appeared  sometimes 
to  depend  on  the  will  of  the  surviving  matron  ;  sometimes  to 
have  been  consequent  on  birth ;  sometimes  to  have  been  the 
result  of  the  free  election  of  the  wild  democracy,  or  of  its 
silent  preferences.     The  general  approval  was  its  primitive 
and  essential  condition,  though  there  have  been  chiefs  who 
could  not  tell  when,  where,  or  how  tliey  obtained  the  sway. 

The  humiliating  subordination  of  one  will  to  another  was 
eveiywhere  unknown.  The  Indian  chief  had  no  crown,  or 
sceptre,  or  guards  ;  no  outward  symbols  of  supremacy,  or  means 
of  enforcing  his  decrees.  The  bounds  of  his  authority  floated 
with  the  cun-ent  of  thought  in  the  tribe  ;  he  was  not  so  much 
obeyed  as  followed  with  spontaneous  alacrity,  and,  therefore, 
the  extent  of  his  power  depended  on  his  jiersonal  capacity. 

Each  village  governed  itself  seemingly  as  if  independent, 
and  each  after  the  same  analogies,  without  variety.     If  the  ob- 
server had  regard  to  the  liead  chief,  the  govermnent  was  mon- 
archical :  but  as,  of  measures  that  concerned  all,  "  they  would 
not  conclude  aught  unto  which  the  people  were  averse,"  it 
might  be  described  as  a  democracy.     In  council,  the  people 
were  guided  by  the  eloquent,  were  emulous  of  the  brave  ;  and 
this  recognised  influence  appeared  to  constitute  an  aristocracy. 
The  governments  of  the  aborigines  scarcely  differed  from  each 
other,  except  as  accident  gave  a  predominance  to  one  of  these 
three  elements.     Everywhere  there  was  the  same  distribution 
mto  families,  and  the  same  order  in  each  separate  to^vn.     The 
affairs  relating  to  the  whole  nation  were  transacted  in  general 
council,  and  with  such  equality  and  such  zeal  for  the  connuon 
good  that,  while  any  one  might  dissent  with  impunity,  the 
voice  of  the  tribe  would  yet  bo  unanimous. 


\  'Vi' 


II 


I' 


m 


i  I  .ifl 


112     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     pabt  hi. 


on.  VII. 


'  1 

M 

h 

,  i, 

m'  >! 

'  'ii 

In  ' 
1 

'1 

1 

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f  ^ 

1 

'' 

1! 

'  ~w 

I 

r 

J 

! 

1 

Their  delight  was  in  aeaoinbling  together  and  listeumg  to 
messengers  from  abroad.  Heated  in  a  semicircle  on  the  ground, 
in  double  or  triple  rows,  with  the  knees  almost  meeting  the 
face ;  the  painted  and  tattooed  chiefs  adorned  with  skins  and 
plumes,  the  beaks  of  the  red-bird  or  the  claws  of  the  bear ; 
each  listener  perhaps  with  a  pipe  in  his  mouth,  and  pre- 
serving deep  silence— they  would  give  solemn  attention  to  the 
speaker,  who,  with  great  action  and  energy  of  langiuige,  dehv- 
ered  his  message.  Decorum  was  never  broken  ;  there  were 
never  two  speakers  struggling  to  anticipate  each  other ;  they 
did  not  express  their  spleen  by  blows ;  the  debate  was  never 
disturbed  by  an  uproar ;  questions  of  order  were  unknown. 

The  record  of  their  treaties  was  kept  by  strings  of  wam- 
pum.    When  the  envoys  of  nations  met  in  solemn  council, 
gift  replied  to  gift,  and  belt  to  belt ;  by  these  the  memory  of 
the  speaker  was  refreshed ;  or  he  would  hold  in  his  hand  a 
bundle  of  little  sticks,  and  for  each  of  them  deUver  a  message. 
Each  tribe  had  its  heralds  or  envoys,  selected  with  reference 
only  to  their  personal  merit,  and  because  they  could  speak 
well ;  and  often  an  orator,  without  the  aid  of  rank  as  a  chief, 
swayed   a  confederacy  by  the  brilliancy  of   his  eloquence. 
That  the  words  of  friendship  might  be  transmitted  safely 
through  the  wilderness,  the  red  men  revered  the  peace-pipe. 
The  person  that  travelled  with  it  could  disarm  the  young 
■waiTior  as  by  a  spell,  and  secure  a  welcome.     Each  village 
had  its  calumet,  which  was  adorned  by  the  chief  with  eagles' 
feathers,  and  consecrated  in  the  general  assembly  of  the  nation. 
The  envoys  desiring  peace  or  an  alliance  would  come  within  a 
short  distance  of  the  town,  and,  uttering  a  cry,  seat  themselves 
on  the  ground.     The  great  chief,  bearing  the  peace-pipe  of  his 
tribe,  with  its  mouth  pointing  to  the  skies,  goes  forth  to  meet 
them,  accompanied  by  a  long  procession  of  his  clansmen, 
chanting  the  hynm  of  peace.     The  strangere  rise  to  receive 
them,  singing  a  song,  to  put  away  all  wars  and  to  bury  all 
revenge.    As  they  meet,  each  party  smokes  the  pipe  of  the 
other,  and  peace  is  ratified.     The  strangers  are  then  con- 
ducted to  the  village ;  the  herald  goes  out  into  the  street 
that  di\ades  the  wigwams,  and  makes  repeated  proclamation 
that  the  guests  are  friends ;  and  the  glory  of  the  tribe  is  ad- 


POLITY  AND  RELIGION  OF  THE  RED  MEN.         ng 

vnnced  by  tho  profuHion  of  hoar's  moat,  and  flesh  of  doM  and 
boniiiiy,  at  tho  hunqut'ts  in  their  lionor.  ' 

liut  while  councilH  were  tho  lii^rheat  enjoyment,  war  was 
tho  only  avenuo  to  glory.  Ir.  warfare  against  man,  they  gained 
an  honorable  and  distinguishing  name.  Hence  to  a>*k  an  In- 
dian hm  name  wa^^  an  oilence;  it  imphed  that  his  deeds,  and 
tho  titles  conferred  for  them,  were  unknowni. 

Tlio  war-ehief  was  never  appointed  on  account  of  birth 
A  war-party  was  often  but  a  band  of  volunteers,  enlisted  for  a 
special  expedition,  and  for  no  more.  Any  one  wlio,  on  chant- 
mg  tho  war-song,  could  obtain  volunteer  followers,  bocmue  a 
wai'-chief. 

Solemn  fasts  and  religious  rites  precede  tho  departure  of 
tho  wamors;  the  war-d.nce  must  be  danced,  and  tho  war-song 
sung.  They  express  in  their  melodies  a  contempt  of  death,  a 
passion  for  glory ;  and  tho  chief  boasts  that  « the  spirits  on  high 
shall  repeat  h.s  name."  A  belt  painted  red,  or  a  bundle  of 
bloody  sticks,  sent  to  the  enemy,  is  a  defiance. 

The  wars  of  tho  red  men  were  terrible,  not  from  their  num- 
bers;  for,  on  any  one  expedition,  they  rarely  exceeded  forty 
men :  the  parties  of  six  or  .even  wore  tho  most  to  be  dreaded. 
They  follow  the  trail  of  the  hostile  braves,  to  kill  them  when 
they  sleep ;  or  they  lie  in  ambush  near  a  village,  to  daah  on  a 
single  foeman  or,  it  may  be,  a  woman  and  her  cliildren ;  and, 
with  three  strokes  to  each,  the  scalps  of  the  victims  being  .ud' 
denly  taken  off,  tho  brave  flies  back  witli  his  companions,  to 
hang  the  trophies  in  his  cabin,  to  go  fron.  village  to  village  in 
triumphant  procession,  to  liear  orators  recounL  his  deeds  I  the 
eto  and  the  chief  people,  and,  by  the  number  of  scalps  taken 
with  Ins  own  hand,  to  gain  high  titles  of  honor,     ^^ar-parties 
01   but  two  or  three  were  not  uncommon.     Clad  iu  skins, 
with  a  supply  of  red  paint,  a  bow  and  quiver  full  of  arrows 
they  would  roam  through  the  forest  as  a  bark  over  tho  oceaL>  • 
tor  days  and  weeks  they  would  Iiang  on  the  skirts  of  thoi^ 

heait  of  he  Five  Nations,  two  young  warriors  would  go 
thi-ough  tho  glades  of  Pennsylv.mia,  tho  valleys  of  western 
rZr  "°5./*^^l  7^thin  tho  momitain  fastnesses  of  tho 
Cherokees.     There  they  would  hide  themselves  in  tho  clefts 

VOL.    II, — 8 


o 


J 


I 


1     i! 


114      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748,    part  iii. ;  en.  vii. 

of  rocks  till,  after  taking  scalps  enough  to  astonish  their  vil- 
lage, they  would  bound  over  the  ledges  for  home. 

The  Indian  compelled  his  captives  to  rmi  the  gauntlet 
through  the  children  and  women  of  his  tribe.  To  inflict 
blo\v's  that  cannot  be  returned  was  esteemed  the  entire  hu- 
miliat'on   of  the   enemy;   it  was,  moreover,  a  trial  of   cour- 


M 


age  and  patience  ;  those  who  showed  fortitude  were  apj^lauded ; 
the  coward  became  an  object  of  scorn. 

Sujipliants  from  a  defeated  nation  were  often  incorporated 
into  the  victorious  tribe.  The  Creek  confederacy  was  recruited 
from  friends  and  foes ;  the  Five  Nations  welcomed  defeated 
Hiirons.  Sometimes  a  captive  was  ado])ted  in  place  of  a  fallen 
warrior.  In  that  event,  the  children  and  the  wife  whom  he  left 
at  home  were  to  be  blotted  from  his  memory :  he  becomes  the 
departed  chieftain,  brought  back  from  the  dwelling-place  of 
shadows,  and  he  is  bound  by  the  same  relations  of  consan- 
guinity, and  the  same  restraints  in  regard  to  niarriage. 

More  commonly,  it  was  the  captive's  lot  to  endure  tonnents 
and  death,  in  the  forms  which  the  Jesuit  Brebeuf  has  described. 
On  the  way  to  the  cabins  of  his  victors,  his  hands  were  crushed 
between  stones,  his  fingers  torn  off  or  mutilated,  the  joints  of 
his  aiMiiJ'  scorched  and  gashed,  while  he  himself  preserved  tran- 
quillity, and  sang  the  songs  of  his  nation.  Arriving  at  the 
homes  of  his  conquerors,  all  the  cabins  regaled  him.  At  one 
village  after  another,  festivals  were  given  in  his  name,  at  which 
he  was  obliged  to  sing.  The  old  chief,  who  might  have  adopt- 
ed him  in  place  of  a  fallen  nephew,  chose  rather  to  gratify 
revenge,  and  pronounced  the  doom  of  death.  "  That  is  well," 
was  his  reply.  The  sister  of  the  fallen  warrior,  into  whose 
place  he  might  have  been  received,  still  treated  him  with  ten- 
derness as  a  brother,  offering  him  food,  and  serving  him  with 
interest  and  regard ;  her  father  caressed  him  as  though  he  had 
become  his  kinsman,  handed  him  a  pipe,  and  wiped  the  thick 
drops  of  sweat  from  liis  face.  His  last  entertainment,  made  at 
the  charge  of  the  bereaved  chief,  began  at  noon.  To  the  crowd 
of  his  guests  he  declared :  "  My  brothers,  I  am  going  to  die ; 
make  merry  around  me  with  good  heart :  I  am  a  man ;  I  fear 
neither  death  Tior  your  tonnents ; "  and  he  sang  aloud.  The 
feast  being  ended,  he  was  conducted  to  the  cabin  of  blood. 


POLITY  AND  RELIGION  OF  THE  RED  MEN.  115 

They  placed  him  on  a  mat,  and  bound  his  hands;  he  rose  and 
danced  round  tJie  cabin,  clianting  his  death-song.     At  eiff'ht  in 
the  evening,  eleven  tires  which  had  been  kindled  were  hedged 
m  by  hies  of  spectators.     The  young  men  selected  to  be  the 
ac  ors  were  exhorted  to  do  well,  for  tlieir  deeds  would  be  grate- 
ful to  Areskoui,  the  powerful  war-god.     A  war-chief  stripped 
the  prisoner,  and  showed  him  naked  to  the  people      Then 
began  excruciating  torments,  which  lasted  till  after  sunrise 
when  the  wretched  victim,  bruised,  gashed,  nmtilated,  half^ 
roasted,  and  scalped,  was  earned  out  of  the  village  and  liacked 
in  peces     A  festival,  at  which  some  of  his  flesh  Avas  eaten, 
comi)leted  the  sacrifice.  ' 

The  most  wonderful  proof  of  the  aptitude  of  the  red  men 

cliP^  iTT'lr  ^'  ^""'^^  ^"  '^'  P^^^^«*^°«  to  which  they 
earned  the  federal  form  of  government,  excelling  the  Hellenic 
councils  and  leagues  in  permanency,  central  vigor,  and  t  e 
smgleness  of  a  true  union.  In  the  south  there  was  the  federal 
rein,  he  of  the  Creeks;  but  that  of  the  Five  m^ns  s  "d 
first  for  the  skdl  .vith  which  its  several  parts  were  consolidated, 
and  by  its  influence  on  events  of  importance  to  the  world. 

d. J  T'''  ^"''^'''  ^^^^^^^'^g'-^^'  Cayugas,  and  Senecas, 

dwelling  near  the  river  and  the  lakes  that  reUin  their  names 
formed  a  confederacy  of  equal  tribes.  Their  territorv,  or,  ai 
they  cal  ed  it  theii-long  house,"  opened  one  of  itsXws  on 

mme?]i  r;      •       '"''  ""  '^''  ^''^'''^  including  under  their 
nnmediate  dominion  more  than  one  half  of  the  state  of  New 

rork.     They  were  proud  of  their  country  as  superior  to  any 
other  part  of  America.     The  soil  was  exuberantly  fertile,  and 
moreover,  from  their  geographical  position,  they  could  stirt  in 
then  canoes  from  the  head-waters  of  the  Hudson,  the  Dela- 
ware,  he  husquelianna,  or  from  branches  of  the  Mississippi 

the  lines  where  the  channels  of  a  national  commerce  have  nol 
been  constructed.  When  Hudson,  John  Smith,  and  Clu^ 
plam  were  at  the  same  time  in  America,  their  superior  prow- 
ess was  knoA^m.    They  claimed  some  supremacy  in  northern 


ov- 


en ;  and  were  acknowledged  as  absolute  lordf 


er   the  conquered  Lenape.     Half  Long  Island  paid^l 


lem 


:.^^ 

1                                 '                 :'■ 

l  '■ 

li 

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116     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    pakt  m. ;  cii.  vii. 

tiibiite;  Upper  Canada  was  their  hunting-field  by  right  of 
war ;  they  oxtennmated  or  reduced  tlie  Eries  and  the  Conesto- 
gas,  both  tribes  of  their  own  family,  the  one  dwelling  to  the 
south  of  Lake  Erie,  the  other  on  the  banks  of  the  Susquehan- 
na ;  they  triumphantly  invaded  the  tribes  of  the  West  as  far  as 
Illinois  ;  their  warriors  reached  Kentucky  and  western  Virginia. 

The  Five  Nations  were  convinced  that  among  them  man 
was  born  free,  that  no  power  on  earth  had  any  right  to  infringe 
on  his  liberty,  and  that  nothing  could  make  him  amends  for 
its  loss.  There  was  no  slavery  and  no  favored  caste.  The  vil- 
lagers dwelt  in  fixed  homes,  surrounded  by  fields  of  beans  and 
maize,  and  changing  their  abode  only  as  the  land  was  worn 
out.  From  the  J  esuit  Lafitau,  the  earliest  writer  on  their  pol- 
ity, we  Iciirn  that  each  village  governed  itself,  and,  like  a  New 
England  town  or  a  Saxon  hundred,  constitated  a  little  democ- 
iacy.  In  each  there  was  the  same  distribution  of  families, 
the  same  laws  if  police,  the  same  order ;  he  who  had  seen  one 
had  seen  all.  AVhen  a  question  arose  which  interested  the 
whole  nation,  the  deputies  of  each  village  met  in  a  common 
council,  and  by  deliberati(jns,  conducted  with  equality  and  pub- 
lic spirit,  arrived  at  an  agreement.  Their  safety  as  a  state  de- 
pended on  union,  wliich  for  this  reason  nothing  could  break. 

Each  village  was  divided  into  the  three  f amiUes  of  the  Wolf, 
of  the  Bear,  and  of  the  Turtle.  More  di%dsions  were  known 
in  later  days.  Each  family  had  its  chiefs,  its  assistant  chiefs, 
its  anci(  nts,  its  warriors.  These,  when  they  met  together, 
formed  the  representation  of  the  separate  state. 

Besides  their  private  names,  the  chivjfs  had  names  describing 
their  diguioy  and  jurisdiction.  The  highest  was  named  chief 
of  the  chiefs,  or  president ;  the  second  represented  the  family, 
whi(.-h  thus,  as  it  were,  was  collectively  present  in  his  person, 
so  that  when  he  spoke  it  might  be  remarked :  "  The  Wolf  has 
said;"  or  "the  Bear  has  said;"  or  "the  Turtle  has  said." 
The  third  class  of  persons  of  power  were  called  the  elders,  or 
ancients.  This  name  did  not  always  correspond  to  their  age, 
but  was  chosen  to  conciliate  respect  and  veneration.  "  They 
might  be  called  senators  or  citizens."  Their  number  was  not 
fixed.  Every  one  had  a  right  to  enter  the  council  and  give 
his  vote  if  he  was  of  matm'e  ajre,  prudence,  and  knov ' 


■*o^> 


o^y 


POLITY  AND  RELIGION  OF  THE  KED  MEN.         117 
and  each  knew  liow  to  make  liimself  esteemed  according  to  his 

The  chiefs  appeared  to  be  equal,  and  were  careful  not  to 
attract  to  themselves  the  direction  of  affairs ;  still,  some  promi- 
nence prevailod ;  perhaps  resting  on  the  cabin  that  had  found- 
ed the  village ;  or  on  the  superior  r  umber  of  a  tribe  •  or  in  a 

^Z"^:  r  *^'^"''''  '''^''^  ''''""  ™^'*  respected  for  his  abiUty. 
11ns,  says  Lahtan,  "  I  have  never  been  able  to  decide  " 
The  dignity  of  the  chief  is  perpetual  and  hereditary  in  liis 
cal>m,  descending  to  the  child  of  amits,  sisters,  or  nieces  on 
the  maternal  side.  M\hcn  the  tree  falls  it  must  be  raised 
again.  The  selection  of  a  successor  had  no  regard  to  primo- 
geniture; the  choice  was  of  him  who  by  his  good  qualities 
was  best  able  to  sustain  the  rank.  To  prevent  his  too  great 
authoi'ity,  he  had  assistants  at  his  side. 

The  warriors  were  the  young  who  were  able  to  bear  arms. 
The  chie  s  of  the  tribes,  if  tit  to  command,  were  ordinarily  at 
their  head ;  but  the  braves  who  had  done  good  seiwice  were 
recognised  as  war  chiefs. 

The  leading  warrior  was  selected  bv  the  general  confidence  • 
merit  alone  could  ol)tain  tlie  preferment,  and  his  power  was  as 
permanent  as  the  esteem  of  the  tribe.  As  their  brave  men 
went  forth  to  war,  f,)r  want  of  martial  instruments,  they  were 
cheered  by  the  far-reaching  voice  of  their  leader. 

Councils  were  assembled  by  the  order  of  the  chiefs,  and 
were  held  m  their  cabins  unless  there  was  a  pubhc  hall  For 
dehheration  the  sessions  were  secret;  no  vote  Avas  taken •  no 
minority  was  made  knoAni ;  the  debate  was  continued  till' the 
mmd  of  the  assembly  became  apparent,  and  its  decision  was 
then  accepted  by  acclamation.  The  open  sessions  were  for  the 
publication  of  that  whicli  had  been  resolved  upon,  and  which 
was  sure  io  meet  with  the  approbation  of  the  multitude 

The  fedc  al  council  fire  was  lighted  in  the  land  of  the 
Onondagas  as  the  central  nation.  It  does  not  appear  that  there 
M-as  one  supreme  chief  for  the  collective  Five  Nations;  but 
each  of  the.n  was  represented  l)y  its  chiefs  in  the  general  con- 
gress, of  which  the  functions  extended  to  all  questions  of  war 
OTKl  peace,  and  of  treaties  and  intercourse  M-ith  foreign  powers. 
Iliese  were  tlie  institutions  which  led  the  Five  Nations  to  deem 


\ 


'I' 
4 


in  I 


I ; 


I'M 


di 


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ii 


118     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    part  iii. ;  en.  vn. 

tlieiuselves  supreme  among  mankind ;  while  other  red  men 
and  the  colonies  looked  upon  them  as  the  fiercest  and  most 
foniiidable  people  in  North  America. 

The  dweller  in  the  wilderness  was  conscious  of  his  depend- 
ence ;  he  felt  the  existence  of  relations  with  the  ohjects  by 
which  he  was  surrounded,  and  with  more  things  than  were 
seen.  Yet  his  conceptions  of  power  were  so  blended  with 
nature  that  to  many  travellers  he  seemed  not  to  have  any 
rehgion.  "As  to  the  knowledge  of  God,"  says  Joutel  of 
the  Indians  of  the  South-west,  "it  did  not  seem  to  us  that 
they  had  any  definite  notion  about  it.  We  found  upon  our 
route  some  who,  as  far  as  we  could  judge,  believed  that  there 
is  something  which  is  exalted  above  all ;  but  they  have  neither 
temples,  nor  ceremonies,  nor  prayers,  marking  a  divine  wor- 
ship. That  they  have  no  religion  can  be  said  of  all  whom 
we  saw."  "  The  northern  nations,"  writes  Le  Caron,  "  recog- 
nise no  divinity  from  motives  of  religion."  Le  Jeune  affirms : 
"  There  is  among  them  very  little  superstition ;  they  think 
only  of  hving  and  of  revenge ;  they  ai'e  not  attached  to  the 
worship  of  any  divinity."  And  yet  every  hidden  agency  was 
personified.  Unaccustomed  to  abstract  thought  or  free  inquiry 
or  any  fonn  of  skepticism,  the  red  man  had  obtained  no  con- 
ception of  unity  in  the  totality  of  being ;  but  wherever  there 
was  motion,  or  action,  and,  in  a  special  manner,  wherever  there 
ajjpeared  singular  excellence  or  mystery,  there  to  him  was  the 
presence  of  a  power  out  of  the  reach  of  the  senses.  It  re- 
sided in  the  flint  that  gives  forth  fire ;  in  the  mountain  cliif ; 
in  the  grotto ;  in  each  little  gniss ;  in  the  sun,  in  the  moon,  in 
the  reddening  of  the  morning  sky ;  in  the  ocean ;  in  the  crag 
that  overhangs  the  river;  in  the  waterfall.  He  found  it  in 
himself  when  he  felt  his  pulse  throb,  his  heart  beat,  his  eyelids 
weigh  down  in  sleep.  To  the  savage,  divinity,  broken  as  it 
were  into  an  infinite  number  of  fragments,  was  present  in  each 
separate  place  and  each  individual  being.  To  secure  the  good- 
will of  the  genius  of  the  place,  they  threw  tobacco  into  the  fire, 
on  the  lake,  on  the  rapids,  into  rocky  crevices,  or  on  the  war- 
path. Hennepin  found  a  beaver  robe  hung  on  an  oak,  as  an 
oblation  to  the  spirit  that  dwells  in  the  falls  of  St.  Anthony. 
The  guides  of  -Joutel  m  the  South-west,  having  killed  a  bufl'alo, 


POLITY  AND  RELIGION  OF  THE  RED  MEN.  HQ 

offered  slices  of  the  meat  to  tlie  unknown  spirit  of  that  wilder- 
ness. As  they  passed  the  Oliio,  the  favor  of  the  stream  was 
soiight  l)j  gifts  of  tobacco  and  dried  meat;  and  worship  was 
piid  to  the  rock  just  above  the  Missouri.  Yet  faith  in  the 
Great  Spirit,  when  once  presented,  so  infused  itself  into  the 
heart  of  remotest  tribes,  that  it  often  came  to  be  considered  as 
a  portion  of  their  original  faith. 

The  savage  was  conscious  of  inexpHcablc  relations  with 
others  than  himself,  of  which  he  could  not  solve  the  origin  or 
analyze  the  nature.  His  gods  were  not  the  offspring  of  terror ; 
every  part  of  nature  seemed  to  liim  instinct  with  power.  "  The 
Hhnois,"  writes  the  Jesuit  Marest,  "adore  a  sort  of  genius, 
which  they  call  manitou;  to  them  it  is  a  master  of  life,  the 
spirit  that  rales  all  things.  A  bird,  a  buffalo,  a  bear,  a  feather, 
a  skill— that  is  their  manitou." 

In  drawing  the  distinction  between  hnnself  and  the  rest  of 
the  world,  the  red  man  included  with  himself  all  his  fellow-men 
For  him  there  was  man,  and  the  world  apart  from  man ;  there- 
fore no  tribe  worshipped  its  prophets,  or  deified  its  heroes ;  no 
Indian  adored  his  fellow-man,  or  paid  homage  to  the  dead      He 
turns  from  himself  to  the  inferior  world,  whicli  he  believes  in 
like  manner  to  be  animated  by  spirits.     The  bird,  that  mysteri- 
ously cleaves  the  air ;  the  fish,  that  hides  itself  in  the  lake ;  the 
beasts  of  the  forest,  whose  unemng  instincts  seem  like  revela- 
tions—these enshrine  the  deity  whom  he  adores.    On  the  Ohio 
a  medicine  man,  who  venerated  the  buffalo  as  his  manitou,  con- 
fessed   o  Memiet  that  he  did  not  worship  the  buffalo,  but  the  in- 
visible spirit  which  is  the  tn)e  of  aU  buffaloes.    -  Is  there  such  a 
manitou  to  the  bear  ? "    «  Yes."     "  To  man  ? "  "  Nothing  more 
certain ;  man  is  superior  to  all."   «  Why  do  you  not,  then,  invoke 
the  manitou  of  man  ? "  And  the  juggler  knew  not  what  to  answer, 
-by  lasting  m  solitude,  the  Ojibwa-and  a  similar  probation 
was  knoAvn  to  other  tribes-seeks  a  special  genius  to  be  his 
protection     The  f\ust  endures  till,  excited  by  thirst,  watchful- 
ness, and  hunger,  he  beholds  a  vision,  and  he  knows  it  to  be 
His  guardian.     It  may  assume  a  fantastic  fonn,  as  of  a  skin  or 
a  feather,  a  smooth  pebble  or  a  shell;  but  the  fetich,  when 
obtained  and  carried  by  the  warrior  in  his  i)ouch,  is  not  the 
guardian  itself,  but  only  its  representative  tokaii. 


I       II   II  H  Mil 

1^  |i- 

I 
I 


I  'i; 


.1' 


;ii 


120     BRITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.    paktiu.:  en.  vii. 


'I 


MM  I, 


Tho  piety  of  the  savage  was  not  merely  ;i  sentiment  of 
passive  resignation :  he  strove  to  propitiate  the  unlmown  pow- 
ers, to  avert  their  wrath,  to  secure  their  favor.  If,  at  first,  no 
traces  of  rehgious  feeling  were  discerned,  closer  observation 
showed  that  even  the  roving  tribes  ol  the  Nortli  had  some 
kind  of  sacritice  and  of  prayer.  On  their  expeditions  they 
kept  no  Avatch  during  tlio  night,  but  invoked  theii  fetiches  to 
be  their  sentinels.  If  the  harvest  was  abundant,  if  the  cliase 
■■■/a?  successful,  they  saw  in  their  success  the  influence  of  a 
itaFiiiou  ;  and  they  would  ascribe  even  an  ordinary  accident  to 
the  wrath  of  the  god.  "  O  manitou ! "  exclaimed  an  Indian, 
at  daybreak,  with  his  family  about  him,  lamenting  the  loss  of 
a  child,  "  thou  art  angry  with  me ;  turn  thine  anger  from  me, 
and  spare  the  rest  of  my  children."  Canonicus,  the  great 
sachem  of  the  JSTarragansetts,  when  bent  with  age,  having 
buried  his  son,  "  burned  his  own  dwelling,  and  all  his  goods 
in  it,  in  part  as  a  humble  exj^iation  to  the  god  who,  as  they 
believe,  had  taken  his  sonne  from  him."  The  idea  that  sin 
should  be  atoned  for  was  so  diffused  among  the  savages  that 
Le  Clercq  believed  some  of  the  apostles  must  have  reached 
the  American  continent. 

The  evils  that  are  in  the  world  were  ascribed  to  spirits  as 
the  di'eaded  authors  of  woe.  The  demon  of  war  was  to  be 
propitiated  by  acts  of  cruelty.  The  Iroquois,  when  Jogues 
was  among  them,  sacriflced  an  Algonkin  woman  in  honor  of 
Areskoui,  their  war-god,  exclaiming :  "  Areskoui,  to  thee  we 
burn  this  victim  ;  feast  on  her  flesh,  and  grant  us  new  victo- 
ries ; "  and  a  part  of  her  flesh  was  eaten  as  a  religious  rite. 

Nor  did  the  wild  man  seek  to  win  by  gifts  alone  the  favor 
of  the  higher  natures,  which  the  savage  divined  but  could  not 
fathom ;  he  made  a  sacrifice  of  his  pleasures  and  chastened  his 
passions.  To  secure  success  in  the  chase  l)y  appeasing  the  tute- 
lary spirits  of  the  animals  to  be  pursued,  severe  fasts  were 
kept ;  and  happy  was  he  to  whom  the  game  appeared  in  his 
dreams,  for  it  was  a  sure  augury  of  abundant  returns.  The 
warrior,  preparing  for  an  expedition,  often  sought  favor  in  bat- 
tle by  continued  penance.  The  security  of  female  captives  was, 
in  part,  the  consequence  of  the  vows  of  chastity,  by  which  he 
was  bound  tiU  after  his  return.     Detestinj?  restraint,  he  was 


POLITY  AND  RELIGION  OF  THE  RED  MEN.  121 

yet  perpetually  imposing  upon  himself  extreme  hardships,  that 
by  suffering  and  self-denial  he  might  atone  for  his  offences. 

The  gifts  to  the  deities  were  made  by  the  chiefs,  or  by  any 
one  of  the  tribe  for  himself.  In  this  sense  each  Indian  was  his 
own  priest ;  the  right  of  offering  sacrifices  was  not  reserved  to 
a  class  ;  any  one  could  do  it  for  himself,  whether  the  sacrifice 
consisted  in  oblations  or  acts  of  self-denial.  The  red  man  put 
faith  in  auguries  ;  but  ho  could  for  himself  cast  the  lots,  and 
he  believed  that  nature  would  obey  the  decision  of  chance. 

For  healing  diseases,  medicine  men  sprung  up  in  every  part 
of  the  wilderness ;  and  he  wlio  could  inspire  confidence  might 
assume  the  office.     He  studied  the  heahng  properties  of  the 
vegetable  world,  and  made  good  use  of  his  knowledge  ;  but  he 
would  try  to  excite  awe  by  coming  forth  from  a  heated,  pent- 
up  lodge  in  all  the  convulsions  of  enthusiasm.     He  boasted 
of  his  power  over  the  elements.     He  could  foretell  a  drou-ht 
or  bring  rain,  or  guide  the  lightning;  he  could  conjure  the  fish 
to  suffer  themselves  to  be  caught,  the  beaver  to  show  itself 
above  the  water,  the  moose  to  forgot  its  shyness  and  courac^e 
Were  he  to  assert  that  the  raanitou  orders  the  sick  man  to  wil- 
low naked  in  the  snow,  or  to  scorch  himself  with  fire,  the  be- 
hest would  be   obeyed.      But  did  not  a  like    illusion   Ion., 
hnger  in  Europe  ?     The  English  moralist  Johnson  was  carried 
m  his  infancy  to  Queen  Anne  to  be  cured  of  scrofula  by  the 
great  medicine  of  her  touch ;    and  near  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  *he  king  of  Portugal,  for  the  restoration 
of  his  healtli,  gathered  relics  from  churches  and  cloisters,  and 
spent  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  more. 

It  could  not  l^e  perceived  that  the  savages  had  any  set  holi- 
days; only  in  times  of  triumph,  o^  burials,  at  harvests,  the 
nation  assembled  for  solemn  rites.  Each  Chocta  tomi  had  a 
house  in  which  the  bones  of  the  dead  were  deposited  for  a 
season  previous  to  their  final  burial.  But  of  the  famed  cabin 
of  the  Natchez,  Charlevoix,  who  entered  it,  writes :  «I  saw  no 
ornaments,  absol-Jy  nothing,  which  could  make  me  know 
that  I  was  m  a  temple;''  and,  refen-ing  to  the  minute  relations 
o±  an  altar  and  a  dome,  of  the  bodies  of  departed  chiefs,  rano-ed 
in  a  circle  ^^^thin  a  round  temple,  he  adds :  "  I  saw  nothing  of 
all  that;  if  things  were  so  formerly,  they  must  have  changed 


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122     BRITISH  AMEPvIOxV  FKOM  1088  TO  1748.    pahtiii.;  cii.  vii. 

greatly."  Of  what  had  been  rei)oi'ted  he  fouiKl  iiothin,  but 
the  fire.  And  Adair  confidently  insinuates  that  the  Koran 
does  not  more  widely  differ  from  the  Gospels  than  the  ro- 
mances res])ecting  the  Natchez  from  the  truth.  No  tribe 
east  of  the  Mi.>«sissippi  had  a  consecrated  spot,  or  temple,  where 
there  was  believed  to  be  a  nearer  comnmnication  between  this 
life  and  that  which  is  unseen. 

Dreams  lu-e  to  the  wild  man  an  avenue  to  the  invisible 
world ;  he  reveres  them  as  revelations  that  nmst  be  carried  into 
effect.  Capricious  visions  of  a  feverish  sleep  were  obeyed  by 
the  village  or  the  tribe;  the  whole  nation  would  contribute 
from  its  harvest,  its  costly  fui's,  its  belts  of  beads,  the  produce 
of  its  chase,  rather  than  fail  in  their  fulfilment.  On  Lake 
Superior,  the  nephew  of  an  Ojibwa  woman  having  dreamed 
that  he  saw  a  French  dog,  she  travelled  four  hundred  leagues 
in  midwinter  to  obtain  it.  If  the  message  conveyed  through 
sleep  could  not  be  fulfilled,  some  semblance  of  fulfilment 
would  be  made.  But,  if  the  dream  should  be  threatening, 
the  savage  ould  prevent  the  dawn  with  prayer ;  or  ho  would 
call  arounu  him  his  friends  and  neighbors,  and,  with  invocar 
tions,  would  fast  and  wake  fo^  many  days  and  nights. 

The  Indian  was  unal)le  to  conceive  of  a  cessation  of  life. 
His  faith  in  immortality  was  like  that  of  the  child,  who  weeps 
over  the  dead  body  of  its  mother,  and  believe^  that  she  yet 
lives.  At  the  bottom  of  an  open  grave  the  melting  snows  had 
left  a  little  w\ater.  ''  You  have  had  no  compassion  for  my  poor 
brother :  "  such  was  the  re]:)roach  of  an  Algonkin ;  "  the  air  is 
pleasant  and  the  sun  cheering,  and  yet  you  do  not  remove  the 
snow  from  his  grave  to  warm  him  a  little ; "  and  he  knew  no 
contentment  till  this  was  done. 

The  same  motive  prompted  the  red  man  to  bury  with  the 
warrior  his  pipe  and  his  nianitou,  his  tomahawk,  quiver,  and 
bow  ready  bent  for  action,  and  his  most  splendid  apparel ;  to 
place  by  his  side  his  bowl,  and  maize,  and  venison,  for  the  long 
journey  to  the  country  of  his  ancestors.  Festivals  in  honor  of 
the  dead  were  frequent,  when  food  was  given  to  the  flames, 
that  so  it  might  serve  to  nourish  the  departed.  The  traveller 
would  find  in  the  forests  a  dead  body  placed  upon  piles, 
shrouded  in  bark,  and  attked  hi  warmest  furs.     If  a  mother 


POLITY  AND  RELIGION  OF  THE  RED  MEN.         123 

lost  her  babe,  slie  would  in  like  mumier  cover  it  with  bark  and 
wrap  it  in  beaver-skins;  at  the  burial-place,  she  would  put  by 
Its  side  its  ci-adle,  its  beads,  and  its  rattles ;  and,  as  a  last  ser- 
vice of  maternal  love,  would  draw  milk  from  her  breast  and 
bum  it  in  the  tire,  that  her  infant  might  still  find  nourish- 
ment on  its  solitary  journey  to  the  land  of  shades.     One  of  the 
earliest  missionaries  attests  that  the  babe  which  should  die 
within  the   iirst  or  second  month  after  its  birth  would  be 
buned  along  the  pathway,  that  so  its  spirit  might  steal  into  the 
bosom  of  some  passing  matron,  and  be  born  again  under  hap- 
pier auspices.  ^ 

The  South-west  was  the  gentle  region  round  which  tradi- 
tions gathered.  There  was  the  paradise  where  beans  and 
maize  gi-ow  spontaneously;  there  dwelt  the  shades  of  the  fore- 
fathers of  the  red  men. 

The  savage  behoved  that  to  every  man  there  is  an  appointed 
time  to  die;  to  anticipate  that  period  by  suicide  was  detested 
as  the  meanest  cowardice.     For  the  dead  he  abounds  in  lamen- 
tations, mingling  them  with  words  of  comfort  to  the  livino-  •  to 
hun  death  is  the  king  of  terrors.     He  never  names  the  name 
of  the  departed ;  to  do  «o  is  an  offence  justifyuig  revenge      To 
speak  generally  of  brothers  to  one  who  has  lost  her  own  would 
be  an  injury,  for  it  would  make  her  weep  because  her  brothers 
are  no  moi-e ;  and  to  orphans  the  missionary  could  not  discourse 
of  the  lather  of  man  without  kindling  indignation.     And  yel 
they  smnmon  energy  to  amiounce  their  own  approaching  death 
with  tmnquiUity.     While  yet  alive,  the  dying  chief  sometiiues 
amyed  himself  m  the  garments  in  whicli  he  was  to  be  buried 
and  giving  a  farewell  festival,  calmly  chanted  his  last  song  01' 
made  a  last  harangue,  glorying  in  the  remembrance  of  his  deeds 
and  commending  to  his  friends  the  care  of  those  whom  he 
oved  ;  and,  when  he  had  given  up  the  ghost,  he  was  placed  by 
h^  wigwam  in  a  sitting  posture,  as  if  to  show  that  though  this 
hfe  was  spent,  the  principle  of  being  was  not  gone ;  and  in  that 
posture  he  was  buried.     The  narrow  house,  within  which  the 
warrior  sat  was  often  hedged  r.and  with  a  light  palisade.     He 
ti Kit  should  despoil  the  dead  was  accursed. 

^  TIic  Indian  was,  moreover,  persuaded  that  each  individual 
animal  possesses  tlie  mysterious,  inc 


ruL-tibie  principle  of  life 


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124     IJRITISII  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    part  in. 


ClI.  VII. 


tlioro  is  jiot  n,  breatliin^  tiling  Imt  liaa  its  shade,  wliicli  never 
can  perish.  Re<;Mr(h'ii<jj  himself,  in  C()in|)ariH<m  with  other  ani- 
nialn,  but  as  tlie  tirst  ani(»n<;  eo-ordinate  exiHtences,  lie  respeets 
the  l)rute  creation,  and  assigns  to  it,  as  to  himself,  a  perpetuity 
of  being.  "Tlie  ancients  of  these  lands"  believed  that  the 
warrior,  when  released  from  life,  renews  the  passions  and  ac- 
tivity of  this  world ;  is  seated  once  more  among  his  friends ; 
shares  again  the  joyous  feast;  walks  through  shadowy  forests, 
that  are  alive  witli  the  spirits  of  birds ;  and  there, 

By  midnight  moons,  o'er  moistening  dews, 

In  vestments  for  the  chiise  arrayed, 
The  hunter  still  the  deer  pursues, 
The  hunter  and  the  deer  a  shade. 
The  idea  of  retriljution,  as  far  as  it  has  found  its  way  among 
them,  was  derived  from  Europeans.     The  future  life  was  to 
the  Indian,  like  the  present,  a  free  gift ;  some,  it  was  indeed 
believed,  from  feebleness  of  age,  did  not  reach  the  jjaradise  of 
departed ;  but  no  red  man  was  so  proud  as  to  believe  that  its 
portals  were  opened  to  him  by  his  o\\ti  good  deeds. 

Their  notion  of  immortahty  was  a  faith  in  the  continuance 
of  life ;  they  did  not  expect  a  general  resurrection  ;  nor  could 
they  be  induced  to  believe  that  the  body  will  be  raised  up. 
Yet  no  nations  paid  greater  regard  to  the  remains  of  their  an- 
cestors. Everywhere  among  the  Choctas  and  the  Wyandots, 
the  Cherokees  and  Algonkins,  they  were  carefully  wrapped  in 
furs,  and  preserved  vvith  affectionate  veneration.  Once  every 
few  years  the  Ilm  ans  collected  from  scattered  cemeteries  the 
bones  of  their  dead,  cleansed  them  from  every  remainder  of 
flesh,  and  deposited  them  in  one  common  grave. 


'J: 


If       : 


III 


NATURE  AND  OUIGIN  OF  THE   IJEI)  ME.V. 


125 


CIIAPTEIi  VIII. 

THE  NATURE  AND  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  MEN. 

A  DEEP  interest  belongs  to  the  qnestion  of  the  natural  rela- 
tion of  the  aborigines  of  America  to  the  race  before  whom  they 
have  retired.     "  A7e  are  men,"  said  the  Illinois  to  Maniuette. 
After  illustrating  the  weaknesses  of  the  Wjandots,  Erel)euf 
adds:  "They  are  men."'     The  natives  of  America  were  men 
and  women  of  like  endowments  with  their  more  cultivated  con- 
querors; they  had  the  sai  -e  aireetious,  and  the  same  powers' 
were  chilled  with  an  ague,  and  they  burned  with  a  fever.     We 
may  call  them  savage,  ju.,  ■  as  we  call  fruits  wild ;  natural  law 
governed  them.     They  revered  unseen  powers ;  they  had  nup- 
tial ties;  they  were  cai-eful  of  their  dead:  their  religion,  their 
marriages,  and  their  burials  showed  them  possessed  of  the  habits 
of  humanity,  and  bound  by  a  federative  compact  to  the  race. 
They  had  not  risen  to  the  conceptions  of  a  Ri)iritual  relhnon  • 
but,  as  between  the  French  and  the  natives,  the  latter— such  is 
the  assertion  of  St.  Mary  of  the  Incarnation-had  the  greater 
tendency  to  devotion.     Under  the  instructions  of  the  Jesuits, 
they  learned  to  swing  censers  and  to  chant  aves.     Gathering 
round  Eliot,  in  Massachusetts,  the  red  choir  sang  the  psahns  of 
David,  in  Indian,  "to  one  of  the  ordinary  English  tunes,  melo- 
diously;    and,  in  tne  school  of  Brainerd,  thirty  Lenape  boys 
could  answer  all  the  questions  in  the  Westminster  Assembly's 
Catechism.     There  were  examples  among  them  of  men  who, 
under  the  guidance  of  missionaries,  became  anxious  for  their 
salvation,  having  faith  enough  for  despair,  if  not  for  conver- 
sion; wamors  submitted  to  the  penance  imposed  by  the  Ro- 
man church ;  and  the  sanctity  of  the  Mohawk  Geneveva  is 
celel)rated  in  the  early  histories  of  Xow  France.     They  reco"-- 


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126    BKITISir  AMEKICA  FROM  1C88  TO  174fl.     pautiii.;  crt.  vni. 

iiiHctl  the  coTinuc^tioii  between  tlie  prineipleHof  niiMHtliui  monils 
and  tlicir  own  faint  intuitions;  and,  evei'  in  tlie  divine  unity, 
they  sectned  to  tind  not  so  niueli  a  novelty  as  a  reniiuiseeneo! 
Their  tal'  •  of  their  age,  or  of  the  nundier"  of  the  warri(.i-H  in 
their  clans,  are  little  to  he  relied  on ;  and  yot  everywhere  tiiey 
counted  like  Lei])nitz  and  Laplace,  and  for  a  coninion  reason, 
began  to  repeat  at  ten.     They  could  not  dance  like  those  traiiunl 
to  movements  of  grace ;  they  could  not  sketch  light  oniameiits 
with  tlie  perfection  of  Kaphael ;  yet,  under  every  sky,  tliey 
delighted  in  a  rhytlnuic  repetition  of  foniis  and  sounds',  would 
dance  in  cadence  to  wild  melodies,  and  knew  liow  to  tattoo 
their  skins  with  harmonious  arabestpies.     We  call  them  cmel  • 
yet  they  never  invented  the  thund)-screw,  or  the  hoot,  or  the 
rack,  or  broke  on  the  wheel,  or  exiled  bands  of  their  nations 
for  oi>inion'8  sake;  and  never  protected  the  monopoly  of  a 
medicine  man  by  the  gallows,  or  the  block,  or  by  tire.     There 
is  not  a  quality  belonging  to  the  white  man  which  did  not 
belong  to  the  American  savage ;  there  is  not  aiiiong  the  abo- 
rigines a  rule  of  language,  a  custom,  or  an  institution,  which, 
when  considered  in  its  princii)le,  has  not  a  counterpart  among 
their  con(pierors.     The  unity  of  the  human  race  is  established 
by  the  exact  correspondence  between  their  respective  powers; 
the  Indian  luis  not  one  more,  has  not  one  less,  than  the  white 
man ;  the  map  of  the  faculties  is  for  both  identical. 

When,  from  the  general  characteristics  of  humanity,  w^e 
come  to  the  comparison  of  powders,  the  existence  of  degrees 
iuimediately  appears.  The  red  man  has  aptitude  at  imitation 
rather  than  invention;  he  learns  easily;  his  natural  logic  is 
correct  and  discriminating,  and  he  seizes  on  the  nicest  distinc- 
tions in  comparing  objects ;  but  he  is  deficient  in  the  power  of 
imagination  and  al)sti'action.  Equalling  the  white  man  in  the 
sagacity  of  the  senses  and  in  judgments  resting  on  them,  he 
was  inferior  in  reason  and  in  ethics.  Nor  was  this  inferiority 
attached  to  the  individual :  it  was  connected  with  organization, 
and  M-as  the  characteristic  of  the  race. 

Benevolence  everywhere  in  our  land  exerted  itself  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  Indian;  above  all,  to  educate 
the  young.  Jesuit,  Franciscan,  and  Puritan,  the  chureli  of 
England,  the  Moravian,  the  benevolent  founders  of  schools, 


NATURE  AND  OBrolN  OF  THE  BED  MEN.  [o- 

nrarlcnio,,  ami  colk.«c.»-all  Imvo  oTKloavorcd  to  tcnol,  new  Inl. 
■to  to  tlio  rimnj;  f,w.crr.tioii  „„i„mk  tho  lT„liun» ;  mul  the  Mult. 
".  c-vf.y  n,.taiie,.,  varyii.^r  i„  ,i,„  ,,„„„„„|  i„,u,„,^^  ^.^.       ' 
l.y  flio  mwBioniin-,  liavo  varioil   in  littlo  dsc.     Woman   too 
«ith  go,itl„R«  an,l  tl,(.  ,vi„ni,:^r  .ntlnisiasn,  of  «.lf.«,o,iHdn.; 
Wnovolonco   atfen.,,to.l  tlK.ir  inxtrncti,,,,,  ,uul  attomptc-l  it  in 
van,,     bt.  Alary  •  f  the  InKo-nation  »„ceo«M  as  littlo  ,u,  .Tona- 
than  E,l«-„rd«  or  l!,-ain™l.    Tho  Josnit  S„.,,hcn  do  Carhc 
rovored  tor  hi»  gonius  a,  well  a.  for  his  zeal,  wa,  for  !„ 
than  mxly  years,  in  the  seventeenth  an,l  eighteenth  eentnries 
a  missionary  among  the  Jl„n,n.Iro,|Moistril,e.s  he  spoke  theil^ 
dialects  with  as  iinioh  '  .ility  aii.l  eleganee  a,  though  they  W 
been  bis  inother  tonv        y„t  the  fmits  of  his  dihgenee  w™ 
mconsiderahle.     Neitlu    John  Eliot  nor  Roger  Wdli  i,  s  w^ 
aide  to  c-hango  es«„ti„dy  the  mind  and  hahits  of  the  New 
tjlaiKl  tr,l,es.    The  Quakers  eanie  among  the  Delaware,  il 
the  spirit  of  peaee  and  hrotlierly  love,  ^nd  with  si ,  .erest 
wishe,  to  benefit  them;  hut  the  Quakers  s„ccee.le.l  u    1     to 

wntes.     T  cy  are  unspeakahly  indolent  and  slothftil ;  they 
discover  htle  gratitu.le ;  they  seem  to  have  no  sentimenteof 
generosity,  henevolcnce,  or  goodness."    Tlie  Moravian  Scid 
could  not  transform  their  nature;  and,  like  other  titts      o 
fi^ginentsof  the  Delawaa-s  have  migrated  to  the  We        T  1 
conditio,,  of  littlo  Indian  commnnitL,  enclosed  w^h' Ei^ 
p  an  settloments    wa.s  hardly  cheering  to  the  philantli,™^" 
111  r.ew  ILunpshire  and  elsewhere,  schools  for  Indian  ehiWrcn 
were  estahhshed;  hut,  as  they  became  Hedged,  they   11  e    "ed 
re  using  to  be  caged.    Harvard  college  ei^u's  ,h    i    ,  "Tm 
Algoikin  among  its  pnpils;  Imt  the  college  parclinient  eoiild 
no   c  ose  the  gulf  between  the  Indian  diameter  o       o  iT  ^ 
and  tlie  AngW  American,    ^o  tribe  could  be  trained  to  habte 
o  rc-gular  industry.    Their  hatred  of  habitual  labor  spo.l«I  „U 

rigid,;:  of'^ttir'ttr'."?"'  ">■  ^  --'  -fl-int  a 

Th  Ws  ;  I  rr  "  "■-■-.'"-'-di'-.v  customs  and  manners. 
Ihe  birds  and  the  brooks,  a,  they  chime  forth  their  unwearied 
ca  t  clc,,,  chiino  them  ever  to  the  same  ancient  melodfr  md 
the  Indian  child,  as  t  grew  up  disuliv,.,!  ■,  l;i- ,  """"*•'""' 
the  habits  of  its  imcestots.       '       *  ^  ^""^  i^i^'^'tJ  '» 


I 


A 


if^     :  ! 


i   ;t 


i 

1 

i 

1 

i 

i 

1 

■    'j 

r 

1 

4m 

1 

y^:! 

1 

123    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     partiii.;  cii.  viii. 

This  determinateness  of  moral  character  was  marked  in  the 
organization  of  the  American  savage.  He  had  little  flexibility 
of  features  or  transparency  of  skin ;  and,  therefore,  if  he  de- 
picted his  passions,  it  was  by  strong  contortions,  or  the  kindhng 
of  the  eye,  that  seemed  ready  to  burst  from  its  socket.  The 
movement  of  his  blood  did  not  visibly  reveal  the  movement 
of  his  affections.     With  rare  exceptions,  he  did  not  blush. 

This  effect  was  heightened  by  a  uniformity  of  intellectual 
culture  and  activity ;  and  where  marriage,  interdicted  indeed 
between  members  of  the  same  family  badge,  was  yet  usually 
hmited  to  people  of  the  same  tribe,  the  purity  of  the  race  in- 
creased the  uniformity  of  organization. 

Nature  in  the  wilderness  is  trae  to  her  type,  and  deformity 
was  almost  unkno^vn.  How  rare  was  it  to  find  the  red  man 
scjuint-eyed,  or  with  a  diseased  spine,  halt  or  blind,  or  with 
any  deficiency  or  excess  in  the  organs !  It  is  not  merely  that 
among  barbarians  the  feeble  and  the  misshaped  pei-ish  from 
neglect;  the  most  refined  nation  is  most  liable  to  produce 
varieties ;  when  the  habits  of  uncivilized  simplicity  have  been 
fixed  for  thousands  of  years,  the  hereditary  organization  is  safe 
against  monstrous  deviations. 

Tliere  is  the  same  general  resemblance  of  feature  among 
all  the  aboriginal  inlialjitants,  from  the  Terra  del  Fuego  to  the 
St.  Lawrence ;  all  have  some  shade  of  the  same  dull  vermilion, 
or  cinnamon,  or  reddish-brown,  or  copper  color,  carefully  to  be 
distinguished  from  the  olive— the  same  dark  and  glossy  hair, 
coarse,  and  never  curling.     They  have  beards,  but  generally  of 
feeble  growth  ;  their  eye  is  elongated,  hanng  an  orbit  inclining 
to  a  cpuukangular  shape ;  the  cheek-l)ones  are  prominent ;  the 
nose  is  broad ;  the  jaws  ])roject ;  the  lips  are  large  and  thick, 
giving  to  the  mouth  an  expression  of  indolent  insensibility; 
the  forehead,  as  compared  with  Europeans,  is  narrow.     The 
facial  angle  of  the  European  is  assumed  to  be  eighty-seven ; 
that  of  the  red  man,  by  induction  from  many  admeasurements, 
is  declared  to  1)e  seventy-five.     TIio  mean  internal  capacity  of 
the  skull  of  the  former  is  eighty-seven  cubic  inches ;  of  the 
barbarous  tribes  of  the  latter,  it  is  found  to  be,  at  least,  eighty- 
two. 

And  yet  the  infiexil)inty  of  organization  is  not  so  al)solute 


NATURE  A3fD  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  MEiY.  129 

as  to  forbid  hoi»  of  essential  improvement.  The  red  color  of 
the  tnbes  differs  ra  ,ts  tint ;  and  some  have  been  found  so  fair 
f  lat  tlio  blood  conid  be  soon  as  it  mantled  to  the  cheek ;  the 
sta tare  and  fonn  vary ;  not  only  are  some  nations  tall  and  den! 
del,  Imt  in  too  same  nation  there  are  contrasts 

Eveiy  Indian  of  to-day  oxeols  his  ancestors 'in  skill,  in  power 
over  natnre,and  „,  knowledge;  the  g„n,  the  knife  and  Z 
oi.e,  of  theniselves,  made  a  revolution  in  his  cond  tion  and 
he  current  of  his  ideas;  that  the  wife  of  the  white  mant 
chenshed  as  h,s  equal  has  been  noised  about  in  their  huts    the 
lea  ot  the  Croat  Spirit,  who  is  the  master  of  Ufe,  has  reached 
the  remotest  prairies.    How  slowly  did  the  condition  If  the 
comm„„  „  „f  Europe  make  advances!    For  how  many 

centuries  dul  letter,  ren.ain  unknown  to  tho  peasant  oIgZ 
manyandFraneet  How  languidly  did  eiriIiz,,tion  perv!  le  tto 
valleys  of  tho  ]?y,™ees !  When  the  Cberokees  h,  d  been  ae- 
qnamted  w,th  Europeans  but  a  century  and  a  half,  thethad 

flocks,  of  the  prmtmg-prcss  and  wirter-mills.    And  flndlv  tZ 
n.a  ,on,  hke  the  Choeta,s,  the  Creeks,  the  Ojibw  .,    ieWta 
ne bagoes,  .and  other  tribes,  have  escaped  the  danger  of  exteml" 
na^ni,.  and  so  mcased  in  intelligence,  that  parents  in  the™ 
dan  Temtory.are  eager  for  the  education  of  their  chikh™ 
of  whom  thousands  are  now  at  school.  ' 

"  Wbenee  w.as  America  people,!  > "  was  the  inquiry  that  fol- 
owed  Its  discovery.    And,  though  this  continent  was     ltd 

tho;:':f';,h*;x,;:'  ™"""*'"" '-"™"  "^ "'"'"-  -<» 

To  .aid  this  inquiry,  there  are  no  monuments.  The  numcr 
ous  mounds  which  arise  in  the  .alluvial  valley  east  of  the  M  " 
...].»  have  by  some  been  regaMed  as  the  works  of  ,m  eari tr 
and  a  more  cultivated  race  ot  men,  whoso  cities  have  been  laM 
asto,  whose  language  and  institutions  have  been  destrZr^ 
b-ivcn  aw.y;  hut  closer  e.xamin.atiou  and  reflection  str ,  Us 
mp«",=;  tbeory  of  its  marvels.    Between  Illinois  an f^i  t 

w  kh  h'eT  """"r  1  ™»"  =""■  '-■.'^->">.™'«.  «™e 

OL    ^\JI1C11    IKIVO   been    ll.dfirl    na  +1,n  c.U„.,   ..£    ..^.^^  ^,         '    , 

otliei's  Iiave 


served  iov  th.  iutemient  of  the  dead;  but  ther 


vot.  n.— 9 


e  IS  no  m-oiind 


H 

!)^^H 

t    ■■Bi 

^'^^^^1 

'*:  1 

!^^^^^| 

^^^^H 

^^M 

lit  ^  i 


1 

1                     ;' 

9^1 

1 

^^^H 

'    ^^1 

1 

■ 

: 

1' 

1 

» 

• :  r     •[ 

1 

i 

'  1 

1 

h' 


I     !. 


m 


'   'i     ; 
II  ill 


'■  f.\ 


130    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi.  ;  en.  viii. 

to  infer  that  any  of  them  were  set  apart  for  sacrificial  purposes, 
and  still  less  that  they  formed  a  line  of  watch-towers.     Experi- 
enced observers,  including  among  them  good  geologists,  be- 
lieve that  many  earthen  stnictures  of  consideral)le  extent  ai'e 
artificial.     But  when  nature  has  taken  to  herself  her  share  in 
the  fonnation  of  the  s;yTnraetrical  hillocks,  nothing  will  re- 
main east  of  the  Mississippi  (nor  west  of  it  north  of  Texas) 
to  wai-rant  the  inference  of  a  higher  civilization  that  has  left 
its  old  abodes  or  died  away;   or  of  an  earlier  acquaintance 
with  the  arts  of  the  Old  World ;  or  of  greater  skill  than  ex- 
isted in  the  native  tribes  that  were  found  in  possession  of  the 
land  south-east  of  the  Mississippi.     "  Among  the  more  ancient 
works,"  says  a  careful  observer,  who  is  not  disposed  to  under- 
value the  significancy  of  these  silent  monuments,  near  which 
he  dwells,  and  which  he  has  carefully  explored,  "  there  is  not 
a  single  edifice  nor  any  i-uins  which  prove  the  existence  in 
foi-mer  ages  of  a  building  composed  of  imperishable  materials. 
No  fragment  of  a  column,  nor  a  brick,  nor  a  single  hewn 
stone  large  enough  to  have  been  incorporated  into  a  wall,  has 
been  discovered.     The  orJy  rehcs  which  remain  to  inflame  curi- 
osity are  composed  of  earth."     Some  of  the  tribes  had  vessels 
made  of  clay ;  near  Natchez,  an  image  was  found,  but  of  a  sub- 
stance not  harder  than  clay  dried  in  the  sun.     These  few  me- 
morials of  other  daj's  may  indicate  revolutions  among  the  bar- 
barous hordes  of  the  Americans  themselves ;  they  cannot  solve 
for  the  inquirer  the  problem  of  their  origin.     Comparative 
anatomy,  as  it  has  questioned  the  graves,  and  compared  its  de- 
ductions with  the  traditions  and  present  customs  of  the  tribes, 
has  not  even  led  to  safe  inferences  respecting  the  i-elations  of 
the  red  nations  among  themselves ;  far  less  has  it  succeeded  in 
tracing  their  wanderings  from  continent  to  continent. 

Neither  do  the  few  resemblances  that  have  been  discovered 
between  the  roots  of  words  in  American  languages  on  the  one 
hand,  and  those  of  Asia  or  Europe  on  the  other,  afford  histori- 
cal evidence  of  any  connection.  The  human  voice  articulates 
hardly  twenty  distinct,  primitive  sounds  or  letters  :  would  it 
not  be  strange,  then,  were  tliere  no  accidental  resemblances? 
Of  all  European  languages,  the  Greek  is  the  most  flexible ;  and 
it  is  that  which  most  easily  furnishes  roots  analogous  to  those 


NATUEE  AND  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  MEN.  131 

of  America.     Not  one  clear  coincidence  has  been  traced  be- 
yond  accident.     Hard  by  Pamlico  sound  dwelt,  and  appa- 
rently bad  dwelt  for  centuries,  branches  of  the  Algonkin,  the 
Iluron-Iroquois,  and  the  Catawba  families.     But  though  these 
nations  were  m  the  same  state  of  civihzation,  were  mingled  by 
wars  and  captures,  by  embassies  and  alliances,  yet  each  was 
found  emplo^ang  a  radically  diiferent  language  of  its  own.     3 
resemblances  cannot  be  traced  between  two  families  that  have 
dwelt  side  by  side  appai-ently  for  centuries,  who  will  hope  to 
Tl^ZT  T'""'    -'^  -other  tongue  in'siberia  or  cTL 

It  is  still  moi-e  evident  that  similarity  of  customs  furnishes 
no  basis  for  satisfactory  conclusions.    The  same  kinds  of  know! 

nZ^:irr]  ^'^t^^-!l^P-^-tly;  the  same  habits  rl 
natmaUy  lonned  under  similar  circumstances.  The  manifest 
recurrence  of  artificial  peculiarities  would  prove  a  connec^n 
among  nations;  but  all  the  usages  consequent  on  tL  re^Tar 
wants  and  mhrmities  of  the  human  system  would  be  liLeW 
hemselves  to  be  repeated ;  and,  as  for  arts,  they  onl7oSew 
ounces  for  measuring  the  capacity  of  hmnan  invention  in  I 
barbarous  or  semi-civilized  state. 

It  is  chiefly  on  supposed  analogies  of  customs  and  of  lan- 

SM  a  f   T  "''"  ''  ''-'^'^  "^'^-  ^-^^  counsel  to  go 
forth  into  a  farther  country,  where  never  numkind  dwelt" 

nave  been  discovered,  now  in  the  bark  cabins  of  .^s^orth  Ameri 

ca,  now  in  the  valleys  of  the  Tennessee,  and  again  a    thTau 

hors  of  culture  on  the  plains  of  the  Co.'diUerast    W    ctnot" 

tell  the  origin  of  the  Goths  and  Celts ;  p.oud  as  we  1  e  oHur 

Identify,  m  the  most  western  part  of  Asia,  the  very  hills  and 

dwelhng  !     JIumamty  has  a  common  character.     The  inffcni- 
Z:t^:i'''  «"^  analogies  in  language,  custon.^  S^- 

n|,,.^t ,  '    ui   nil-  "111    World;  tllc  IHOUB  ciuios  ty  of 

dd  1!;  •',;'■;  ','■ ' "  '"""""'•  -'»*'-'-.  1— tod  aV 


I! 


^fi 


J! 

a,.; 

¥ 

ii 

HI 

ii. 

B 


132    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748. 


PART  III. :  en.  VIII. 


i      ■  ^i 


The  Egyptians  used  hieroglv]ilnc8 ;  so  did  the  Mexicans, 
and  the  Pawnees,  and  tlie  Five  Nations.  Among  the  Algon- 
Idns  now  a  man  is  represented  by  a  nide  figure  of  a  body,  sur- 
mounted by  the  head  of  the  animal  Avhicli  gives  a  badge  to  his 
family ;  on  the  Egyptian  pictures,  men  arc  found  designated 
in  the  same  way.  But  did  North  America,  therefore,  send 
envoys  to  the  court  of  Sesostris  ? 

If  the  Carthaginians  rivalled  Yasco  da  Gama,  why  may 
they  not  have  anticipated  Columbus  ?  And  men  have  seen  on 
rocks  in  America  Phoenician  inscriptions  and  proofs  of  Pha3m- 
cian  presence ;  but  these  disappear  before  an  honest  skepticism. 
Besides,  tlie  Carthaginians  were  historians ;  and  a  Latin  poet 
has  preserved  for  us  the  testimony  of  Ilimilco,  "  that  the  abyss 
beyond  the  Columns  of  Hercules  was  to  them  interminable ; 
that  no  mariner  of  theire  had  ever  guided  a  keel  into  that 
boundless  deep." 

On  a  rock  by  the  side  of  a  small  New  England  stream, 
where  even  by  the  aid  of  the  tides  small  vessels  can  hardly 
pass,  a  rude  inscription  lias  been  made  on  a  natural  block  of 
gray  granite.  By  unwarranted  interpolations  and  bold  distor- 
tions, in  defiance  of  countless  improbabilities,  the  plastic  power 
of  fancy,  as  it  runs  away  from  observation,  transformed  tho 
rude  etching  into  a  Runic  monument ;  a  still  more  recent  the- 
ory insists  on  the  analogy  of  its  forms  with  the  inscriptions 
of  Fezzan  and  the  Atlas.  Calm  observers,  in  tlie  vicinity  of 
the  sculptured  rock,  see  nothing  in  the  design  beyond  the  capa- 
city of  the  red  men  of  New  England ;  and,  to  AVashington, 
who  from  his  youth  was  intimately  acquainted  with  the  skill 
and  manners  of  the  barbarians,  the  character  of  the  drawing 
suggested  its  Algonkin  origin.  Scandinavians  may  have  reached 
the  shores  of  Labrador ;  the  soil  of  the  United  States  has  not 
one  vestige  of  their  presence. 

An  ingenious  writer  on  the  maritime  history  of  the  Chinese 
finds  traces  of  voyages  to  America  in  the  fifth  century,  and 
opens  an  avenue  for  Asiatic  science  to  pass  into  the  kingdom  of 
Antiluiac.  But,  if  Chinese  traders  or  emigrants  came  so  recent- 
ly to  America,  there  would  be  evidence  of  it  in  customs  and 
language.  Nothing  is  so  indelible  as  speech :  sounds  that,  in 
ages  of  unknown  antiquity,  were  spoken  among  the  nations  of 


NATURE  AND  OPJGIX  OF  THE  RED  MEN.  133 

Hindostan,  still  live  with  unchanged  meaning  in  the  language 
winch  Ave  daily  utter.  The  winged  word  cleaves  its  way 
through  time,  as  well  as  through  space.  If  Chinese  came  to 
civihze,  and  came  so  recently,  the  shreds  of  their  civilization 
would  be  still  chnging  to  their  works  and  their  words. 

Nor  does  the  condition  of  astronomical  science  in  aboriginal 
Amenca  prove  a  connection  with  Asia.     The  red  men  could 
not  but  observe  the  pole-star;  and  even  their  children  could 
give  the  names  and  trace  the  motions  of  the  more  brilHant 
groups  of  stars,  of  which  tlie  return  marks  the  seasons;  but 
tliey  did  not  divide  the  heavens,  nor  even  a  belt  m  the  heavens 
into  constellations.     It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that,  among  the 
Algonkms  of  the  AMantic  and  of  the  Mississippi,  alike  among 
he  ^arragan.etts  and  the  Illinois,  the  north  star  was  called 
the  i,ear.     This  accidental  agreement  with  the  widely  spread 
usage  of  the  Old  World  is  far  more  observable  tlian  the  LZ 
mary  resemblance  l)etween  the  signs  of  the  Mexicans  for  theh- 
da^ys  and  the  signs  on  the  zodiac  for  the  month  in  Thibet 
ihe  American  nation  had  no  zodiac,  and  thcrefove,  for  the 
names  of  its  days,  could  not  have  borrowed  from  Central  Asia 
the  symbols  that  marked  the  path  of  the  sun  through  the  year 
Nor  had  the  Mexicans  either  weeks  or  lunar  months ;  but,  after 
the  inanner  of  barbarous  nations,  they  divided  the  days  in  the 
year  into  eighteen  scores,  leaving  the  few  remaining  days  to 
be  se    apart  by  themselves.     This  division  may  have  sprung 
directly  from  their  system  of  enumeration;  it  need  not  have 
been  maported      It  is  a  greater  marvel  that  the  hidigenous  in- 
habitants of  Mexico  had  a  nearly  exact  knowledge  of  the  length 
of  the  year,  and,  at  the  end  of  one  hundred  "and  four  years 
made  their  intercalation  more  accurately  than  tlie  Greeks,  the 
Eomans,  or  the  Egyptians.     The  length  of  their  tropical  year 
was  almost  identical  with  the  result  obtained  by  the  astrono- 
mei-s  of  the  caliph  Almamon ;  but  let  no  one  derive  this  coin- 
cidence from  intercourse,  unless  he  is  prepared  to  beHeve  that 
in  the  mnth  centary  of  our  era,  there  was  commerce  between 
Mexico  and  Bagdad.     The  agreement  favors  the  belief  that 
Mexico  did  not  leam  of  Asia;  for,  at  so  late  a  period,  inter- 
course between  the  continents  would  have  left  its  indispu- 
ta!)le  traces.     No  inference  is  warranted,  except  that,  in  the 


Tf  ''^■'^'^ 

4! 
1     1 

i\  i 


I 


|/!ti  .1, 


l!i' 


hiii 


in    i 


V  I 


134    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.     pakt  hi.  ;  en.  viii. 

cloudless  atmosphere  of  the  table-lands  of  Central  America, 
the  sim  was  seen  to  run  his  career  as  faithfully  over  the 
heights  of  the  Cordilleras  as  over  the  plains  of  Mesopotamia. 

When  to  tliis  is  added  that,  alone  of  mankind,  the  Ameri- 
can nations  universally  were  ignorant  of  the  pastoral  state ; 
that  they  kept  neither  sheep  nor  kine ;  that  they  knew  not  the 
use  of  the  milk  of  animals  for  food ;  that  they  had  neither  wax 
nor  oil ;  that  their  maize  was  kno\vn  to  no  other  continent ; 
that  they  had  no  iron — it  becomes  nearly  certain  that  the  im- 
perfect civilization  of  America  is  its  own. 

Yet  the  original  character  of  American  culture  does  not 
insulate  the  American  race.  It  would  not  be  safe  to  reject  the 
possibility  of  an  early  communication  between  South  America 
and  the  Polynesian  world.  Nor  can  we  know  what  changes 
time  may  have  wrouglit  on  the  surface  of  the  globe,  what 
islands  may  have  been  submci'ged,  what  continents  divided. 
But,  without  resorting  to  conjectures  or  fancies,  everywhere 
around  us  there  are  signs  of  migrations,  of  which  the  bounda- 
ries cannot  be  set;  and  the  movemenc  seems  to  have  been 
toward  the  east  and  south. 

The  number  of  primitive  languages  increases  near  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico ;  and,  as  if  one  nation  had  crowded  upon  another, 
in  the  canebrakes  of  the  state  of  Louisiana  there  were  more 
independent  languages  than  are  found  from  the  Arkansas  to 
the  pole.  In  like  manner,  they  abounded  on  the  plateau  of 
Mexico,  the  natural  liighway  of  wanderers.  On  the  western 
shore  of  America  tliere  are  more  languages  than  on  the  east ; 
on  the  Atlantic  coast,  as  if  to  indicate  tliat  it  had  never  been  a 
thoroughfare,  one  extended  from  Cape  Fear  to  the  Esquimaux ; 
on  the  west,  between  the  latitude  of  forty  degrees  and  the  Es- 
quimaux, there  were  at  least  four  or  five.  The  Californians 
derived  their  ancestors  from  the  north  ;  the  Aztecs  presei-ve  a 
narrative  of  their  northern  origin. 

At  the  north,  the  continents  of  Asia  and  America  nearly 
meet.  In  the  latitude  of  sixty-five  degrees  fifty  miimtes,  a  line 
across  Eeliring's  straits,  from  Cape  Prince  of  Wales  to  Cape 
Tschowkotskoy,  would  measure  a  fraction  less  tlian  forty-four 
geographical  miles;  and  tliree  small  islands  divide  tlie  distance. 

Within  the  latitude  of  fifty-five  degrees,  the  Aleutian  isles 


NATURE  AND  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RED  MEN.  135 

stretch  from  the  great  promontory  of  Alaska  so  far  to  the  west 
that  the  last  of  the  archipelago  is  l)ut  three  hundred  and  sixty 
geogra])hical  miles  from  the  east  of  Kamtschatka;  and  that 
distance  is  so  divided  by  the  :Mednoi  island  and  the  group  of 
Behriug  that,  were  boats  to  pass  islet  after  islet  fi-om  Kamt- 
schatka to  Alaska,  the  longest  navigation  in  the  open  sea  would 
not  exceed  two  hundred  geographical  miles,  nor  need  the  mari- 
ner at  any  moment  be  more  than  forty  leagues  distaiit  from 
land ;  and  a  chain  of  thickly  set  isles  extends  from  the  south  of 
Kamtschatka  to  Corea.    Now,  the  Micmae  on  the  north-east  of 
our  continent  would,  in  his  frail  boat,  venture  thirty  or  forty 
leagues  out  at  sea :  a  Micmae  savage,  then,  steering  from  isle  to 
isle,  might  in  his  birch-bark  canoe  have  made  the  voyage  from 
]!^orth-west  America  to  China. 

Water,  ever  .1  favorite  highway,  is  especially  the  highway 
of  uncivihzed  man :  to  those  who  have  no  axes,  the  thick  jun- 
gle is  impervious ;  canoes  are  older  than  wagons,  and  ships  than 
chariots ;  a  gulf,  a  strait,  the  sea  intervening  between  islands, 
divide  less  than  the  matted  forest.  Even  civilized  man  emi- 
grates by  sea  and  by  rivei-s,  and  he  ascended  two  thousand 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri,  while  interior  tracts  in 
jS'ew  York  and  Ohio  were  still  a  wilderness.  To  the  uncivil- 
ized man,  no  path  is  free  but  the  sea,  the  lake,  and  the  river. 

The  red  Indian  and  the  Mongolian  races  of  men,  on  the  two 
sides  of  the  Pacific,  have  a  near  rescKiblance.     Both  are  alike 
strongly  and  definitely  marked  by  the  more  capacious  palatine 
fossa,  of  which  the  dimensions  are  so  much  larger  that  a  care- 
ful observer  could,  out  of  a  heap  of  skulls,  readily  separate  the 
Mongolian  and  American  from  the  Caucasian,  but  could  not 
distinguish  them  ^^rora  each  other.     Both  have  the  orbit  of  the 
eye  quadrangular,  rather  than  oval ;  both,  especially  the  Ameri- 
can, have  a  narrowness  of  the  forehead;  the  facial  angle  in 
both,  but  especially  in  the  American,  is  comparatively  small ; 
in  both,  the  bones  of  the  nose  are  flatter  and  broader  than  in 
the  Caucasian,  and  in  so  equal  a  degree  and  with  apertures  so 
snuilar,  that,  on  examining  specimens  from  the  two,  an  ob- 
server could  not,  from  this  featm-e,  discriminate  which  of  them 
belonged  to  the  old  continent;  both,  but  especially  the  Ameri- 
cans, are  chai^acterized  by  a  prominence  of  : 


J- 


The 


fdi    !,|! 


i  ii 


136    BKITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    pakt  m. ;  en.  viii. 

elongated  occiput  is  common  to  the  American  and  the  Asiatic ; 
and  there  is  to  each  very  nearly  the  same  obhquity  of  the  face. 
Between   the  Mongolian  of  southern  Asia  and  of  northern 
Asia  there  is  a  greater  difference  than  between  the  Mongolian 
Tatar  and  the  N(jrth  American.     The  Iroquois  is  more  unlike 
the  Peruvian  tlmn  he  is  unlike  the  wanderer  on  the  steppes  of 
Siberia.^    Physiology  has  not  succeeded  in  defining  the  (juali- 
ties  which  belong  to  every  well-formed  Mongolian,  and  which 
never  belong  to  an  indigenous  American;  still  less  can  geo- 
graphical science  draw  a  boundary  line  between  the  races.    The 
Athapascas  cannot  be  distinguished  from  Algonkin  Ivnisteneaux 
on  the  one  side,  or  from  Mongolian  Esquimaux  on  the  other. 
The  dwellers  on  the  Aleutian  isles  melt  into  resemblances  with 
the  inliabitants  of  each  continent ;  and,  at  points  of  remotest 
distance,  the  difference  is  still  so  inconsiderable  that  Ledyard, 
whose  curiosity  filled  him  with  the  passion  to  circunmavigate 
the  globe  and  ci-oss  its  continents,  as  he  stood  in  Siberia  with 
men  of  the  Mongolian  race  before  him  and  compared  them 
with  the  Indians  who  had  been  his  old  play-fello^v,s  and  school- 
mates at  Dartmouth,  writes  deliberately  that,  "universally  and 
circumstantially,  they  resemble  the  al)origines  of  Americ..."' 
On  the  Connecticut  and  the  Obi,  he  saw  but  one  race. 

He  that  describes  the  Tungusiuns  of  Asi.  seems  also  to  de- 
scribe the  North  American.  That  the  Tschukchi  of  north- 
eastem  Asia  and  the  Esquimaux  of  America  are  of  the  same 
origin  is  proved  by  the  affinity  of  their  languages,  thus  estab- 
lishing an  ancient  connection  between  the  continents  previous 
to  the  discovery  of  America  by  cultivated  Europeans.  The 
indigenous  population  of  America  offers  no  greater  obotacle  to 
faith  in  the  unity  of  the  human  race  than  exists  in  the  three 
continents  first  known  to  ci^dlizatiou. 


I(il5-1634.    niOGRESa  OF  FRANCE  IN  NORTU  AMERICJA. 


137 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PROGRESS   OF   FE.V.\CE  IN  NORTH   AMERICA. 

no   h  ot  tlie  Potomac.    Five  years  before  the  pilgrims  anchored 
withm  Cape  Cod,  the  Eoman  church  had  bee/i  planted  by  mL 
sionaries  frou.  France  in  tlie  eastern  half  of  Maine    in  10  5 
and  the  year  which  followed  it    To  n  ^^^'i^e,  m  lOlo 

Frinci.PnT,    fl.o  ^o;^o^^el  it,  Le  Caron,  an  unambitious 

ing-grounao  of  the  l\yandots,  and,  on  foot  or  paddling  a  bark 

age.,  tdl  he  reached  tlie  rivers  of  Lake  Huron.  While  One 
bee  contamed  scarce  «ftyhihabitants,  missionaries  of  tle^re 
Old  r,  among  them  La  Roche  and  the  historian  Sagard      ad 

the  oS^'lviir"  ''""fr  ^^-P-^^-^  ^-n  oppressed, 
tJie  La  vmists,  A\  ilhani  and  Emeric  Caen,  had  for  five  vears 

S:  1  •  ;™"'"-  ^''^  ^^^^">'  --  distracted  b/de 
nry  which  spruiig  „p  between  Catholics  and  Hugueno  f 
C  in  plam  appealed  to  the  royal  council  and  to  Richelitn  who 
lad  been  creatal  grand  master  of  navigation.  Supp  ;  „' 
W  grants,  the  minister,  in  1027,  created  for  Xe  v  S 

lerTr-     1  ''•  .^^"^^^"-^-^  Associates,  as  they  w 
called.     Their  dominion  included  "IVow  v,..,'  ^       \ 

from  Florida  to  the  Arctic  cirde  from  A^    7     ii''  f'"f' 
wpqf  na  +1.^       •  1 X  ,  '     °^"  ^Newfoundland  as  far 

west  as  they  might  carry  the  Gallic  name  " 

1^  or  Its  safety,  JN^ew  France  would  need  an  increase  of  if, 
^  '''^'"^  ^"■^"^"  ^'«  '^^^^es.     Quebec  had  hitherto  been 


/I 


?l     ! 


ifit 


Vf   'il 


i  'A 


p     r'l 


138      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  17-t8. 

littlo  more  tlian  the  station  of  the  few  persons  who  were  em- 
ployed in  tlie  fnr  trade ;  tlie  lltindred  Associrtes  pl(;dged 
themselves  within  fifteen  yeiirs  to  send  over  fom*  thousand 
emigrants,  male  and  female,  uU  of  whom  were  to  he  Catho- 
lics and  of  tlie  French  nation.  Chaiiii)lain,  still  the  governor 
of  New  France,  ever  disinterested  and  compassionate,  full 
of  honor  and  prohity  and  ardent  devotion,  esteemed  "the 
salvation  of  a  soul  worth  more  than  the  conquest  of  an  em- 
pire." Touched  by  the  simplicity  of  the  order  of  St.  Fi'ancis, 
he  had  selected  its  priests  of  the  contemplative  class  for  his 
companions ;  "  for  they  were  free  from  ambition ; "  but  now 
they  were  set  aside  because  they  were  of  a  mendicant  order, 
and  for  the  office  of  aiding  the  enlargement  of  French  do- 
minion by  missions  in  Canada  the  society  of  the  Jesuits  was 
preferred. 

The  establishment  of  "  the  Society  of  Jesus"  by  Loyola  was 
contemporary  with  the  reformation,  of  which  it  was  designed  to 
arrest  the  progress ;  and  its  complete  organization  belongs  to  the 
period  when  the  first  full  edition  of  Calvin's  Institutes  saw  the 
light.  Its  members  were,  by  its  niles,  never  to  become  pre- 
lates, and  could  gain  power  and  distinction  only  by  their  sway 
over  mind.  They  took  vows  of  poverty,  chastity,  absolute  obe- 
dience, and  a  constant  readiness  to  go  on  missions  to  the  here- 
tic or  heathen.  Their  order  aimed  at  the  widest  diffusion  of 
its  activity,  and,  inunediately  on  its  institution,  their  missiona- 
ries made  their  way  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Eeligious  enthu- 
siasm colonized  New  England ;  religious  enthusiasm  took  pos- 
session of  the  wilderness  on  the  upper  lakes  and  explored  the 
Mississippi.  Puritanism  gave  New  England  its  worship  and 
its  schools;  the  Roman  church  and  Jesuit  priests  raised  for 
Canada  its  altars,  its  hospitals,  and  its  seminaries.  Tlie  influ- 
ence of  Calvin  can  l)e  traced  in  every  New  England  village ;  in 
Canada,  not  a  cape  was  turned,  nor  a  mission  founded,  nor  a 
river  entered,  nor  a  settlement  begun,  but  a  Jesuit  led  the  way. 
The  Hundred  Associates,  giving  attention  only  to  the  commer- 
cial monopoly  of  a  privileged  company,  neglected  their  pledges 
to  bring  over  colonists ;  the  climate  of  Quebec,  "  where  shiv- 
ering summer  hurries  through  the  sky,"  did  not  allure  the 
peasantry  of  Fi'anee ;  and  no  persecution  of  Catholics  swelled 


!  >■  > 


1034-1641.    PROGRESS  OF  FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AMERICA.    139 

the  Btreaui  of  emigratio.i ;  tlicTe  was  little  except  missionarv 
zeal  to  give  vitality  to  French  doininion. 

Beli(,l,l,  then,  in   Wn,  the  Jesuits  Brebeuf  and    Daniel 
Boon  to  be  followed  by  Lalleniand  aTul  „thers  of  their  order' 
jonnnc.  a  party  of  barefoot  Ifurons,  who  were  returning?  from 
Quebec  to  the.r  country.     The  journey,  by  way  of  the  Ot- 
tawa and  the  rvers  that  interlock  with  it,  was  one  of  nvore 
than  three  hundred  leagues,  through  a  region  dank  with  for- 
ests.    All  day  long  the  missionaries  must  wade,  or  handle  the 
oar     At  night,  there  is  no  food  for  them  but  a  scauty  measure 
of  Indian  corn  mixed  with  water;  their  couch  is  the  earth  or 
the  rock.     At  hve-and-thirty  waterfalls  the  canoe  is  to  be  ear- 
ned on    theshoulflers  for  leagues  through  thick  woods   or 
roughest  regions  ;  fifty  times  it  was  dragged  by  hand  through 
sha  lows  and  rapids,  over  sharp  stones;  and  thus-swimming 
wading,  paddling,  or  bearing  the  canoe  across  the  porta-^es' 
with  gannents  torn,  with  feet  mangled,  yet  with  the  breviar; 
safely  hung  round  the  neck,  and  vows,  as  they  advanced  to 
meet  death  twenty  times  over,  if  it  were  possiblJ,  f<.r  the  hoJior 
ot  St.  Joseph-the  consecrated  envoys  made  their  M-ay,  bv 
nvers    lakes    and  forests,  from  Quebec  to  the  heart  of  the 
Canadian  wi  derness.     There,  to  the  northwest  of  Lake  To- 
ronto near  the  shore  of  Lake  L-oquois,  which  is  but  a  bay  of 
Lake  ILii-on,  they,  in  September,  raised  the  humble  house  of 
the  Society  of  Jesus;  the  cradle,  it  was  said,  of  his  church 
who  d^velt  at  Bethlehem  in  a  cottage.     At  this  little  chapel 
dedicated   to   St.   Joseph,  vespers  and  matins  began   to  be 
chanted  and  bread  consecrated  in  the  presence  of  the  hered- 
itary guardians  of  the  Huron  council-fires.     Beautiful  testi 
mony  to  the  equality  of  the  human  race!  tlie  sacred  M.ifer 
emblem  of  the  divinity  in  man,  all  that  the  church  olfered  to 
the  pnnces  and  nobles  of  the  European  world,  was  shared  Avith 
the  humblest  neopliyte;  moreover,  by  the  charter  of  the  Hun- 
dred Ass._.ciates,  every  Indian  convert  was  deemed  to  be  a 
native  citizen  of  France.      Two  new  Christian  villages,  St 
Loxus  and  St.  Ignatius,  spning  up,  and  there  ascetic  devotees 
tteied  vows  in  the  Huron  tongue ;  while  skeptics  of  the  wil- 
derness asked  If  there  were,  indeed,  in  the  centre  of  the  earth, 
e^  ei  lasting  fiames  for  the  unbelieving. 


■'  i 


i  < 


*  11' 

■  1^ 


'XI 


rt  . 


140      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     paut  iir.;  cii.  ix. 


The  ini.srfiouary  on  Luko  Huron  devoted  the  earliest  hours 
to  private  prayer;  the  day  wan  given  to  ischools,  visits,  instnic- 
tion  in  tlie  catechism,  and  a  service  for  proselytes,  Soiiie- 
tinies,  after  the  manner  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  IJreheiif  would 
walk  through  the  village  and  its  environs,  ringing  a  little  hell, 
and  inviting  the  hraves  a"d  counsellors  to  a  eonferen'o.  As 
stations  multiplied,  the  central  spot  was  named  St.  JNIary's, 
upon  the  banks  of  the  river  now  called  Wye ;  and  there,  at 
the  humble  house  dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  guests  from  the 
cabins  of  the  red  man  received  a  frugal  welcome. 

At  the  news  from  this  Huron  Christendom,  religious  com- 
munities, in  Paris  and  in  the  provinces,  joined  in  prayers  for 
its  advancement ;  the  king  sent  embroidered  garments  as  j)re8- 
cuts  to  the  neoi)hytes;  the  (pieen,  the  princesses  of  the  blood, 
the  clergy  of  France,  even  Italy,  listened  with  interest  to  the 
noA'el  tale,  and  the  pope  expressed  his  favor.  Pi-ompted  by 
his  own  philanthroiiy,  Silleri,  in  1<;37,  founded  near  Quebec 
the  village  of  Algonkins,  which  bears  his  name.  In  1(588,  the 
duchess  of  Aigiiillon,  aided  by  her  uncle,  the  Cardinal  Iliche- 
lieu,  endowed  a  public  hospital,  oi)en  to  the  maimed,  the  sick, 
and  the  blind  of  any  tribe  between  the  Kennebec  and  Lake  Su- 
perior. For  its  service,  three  hospital  nuns  of  Diepjie  were 
selected ;  the  youngest  but  twenty-two,  the  eldest  but  twenty- 
niue. 

Inspired  by  the  same  religious  enthusiasm,  ]\[adamc  do  la 
Peltrie,  a  young  and  opulent  widow  of  Alengon,  with  the  aid 
of  a  nun  from  Dieppe  and  two  others  from  Tours,  in  1039 
came  over  to  establish  the  UrsuUne  convent  ior  the  education 
of  girls.  As  the  youthful  heroines  stepped  on  shore  at  Quebec, 
they  stooped  to  kiss  the  earth  which  they  adopted  as  their 
country.  The  eHort  of  educating  the  .',.  man's  children  was 
at  once  begun. 

Of  Montreal,  selected  by  the  Sulpicians  to  be  a  nearer  ren- 
dezvous for  converted  Indians,  jjossession  was  taken,  in  1040, 
by  a  solemn  mass.  In  the  following  Febniary,  at  the  cathe- 
di'al  of  Our  Lady  of  Paris,  a  general  supplication  was  made 
that  the  Queen  of  Angels  would  receive  the  island  under  her 
protection.  In  August  of  the  same  year  the  French  and  native 
chiefs  met  there  to  solemnize  the  festival  of  the  assumption. 


1041-1643.    PROGRESS  OF  FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AMKRICA.     Ui 

Tho  ancient  l.oarth  of  the  nacreU  fire  of  thn  Wyandots  wna 
consecrated  to  tho  Vii'<rin. 

IJeforo  1(147,  the  rc.n.>to  wildernoHs  was  visited  by  fortv-two 
Jesuit  missionaries,  l)esidcs  eighteen  assistants. 

By  cmtinuai  warfare  witli  the  Jtohawi<s,  tho  Frcncli  Imd 
been  excu.ded  fron.  the  navigation  of  Lake  Ontaiio,  and  had 
never  even  lannched  a  canoe  on  Lake  Erie.     Their  ^enne  to 
the  West  was  by  way  of  the  Ottawa  and  Frencli  i-iver     If  tho 
Ijreneh  could  command  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Ontario 
Iiey  "could  ascend  the  St.  Lawrence  without  danger,  an.l  pass 
beyond  .\iagara  with  a  great  savh.g  (,f  time  and  pains."     Dut 
ho  hxed  hostdity  and  the  power  of  the  Five  Nations  left  no 
hope  ot  success.     In  the  autunm  of  1040,  Charles  Kaymbault 
and  Claude  Pijart  reached  the  Huron  nuLions.     To  i  resm^ 
the  avenue  to  the  West  by  the  Ottawa,  they  on  their  UnL 
u  tempted  the  conversion  of  tho  roving  tribes  that  were  '^Z 
of  the  highways;  and,  in  tho  following  year,  they  roamed  -^ 
missionaries  with  tho  Algonkins  of  LakS  Nipi,;:n./ 

Toward  the  close  of  summer,  those  wandering  tribes  pre- 
paid to  ce  ebrate  "  their  festival  of  tho  dead."  lo  this  ce:. 
nionv  a  1  the  confederate  nations  .vere  invited ;  as  they  ap- 
proach the  shore,  on  a  deep  bay  in  Lake  Iroquoi  ,  tlieir  cLI 
julvanco  m  regular  array,  and  the  represen/ativ;  of  n  t^n 
leap  on  shore,  uttering  exclamations  and  cries  of  joy,  which  L 
rocks  re-echo.  The  longcabin  for  thedead  had  bien  pr" 
thou-  bones  are  mcoly  disposed  in  coffins  of  bark,  and  wi,>ped' 
m  such  turs  as  the  wealth  of  Europe  would  have  covet  df\he 
mourning  song  of  tho  war-chiofs  had  been  chanted,  ail  nigh 

he  dead,  tho  honorable  sepulclu-o,  the  dances,  the  councils 

t  S    I'tt.   a7      T.r^  "^  ''^''^'''  '-  ^^-"^  the  Ojibwas 

ihoii         ff       "■'?•        ^^'  ^^''"  ^^'^'"-'^^^  y^''^  '^  ^^-^thers  "  said 
then  c  neftams ;  ''wo  will  derive  profit  from  your  words." 

1 01  the  leader  of  this  voyage  of  discovery  to  the  soil  of  one 

o   our  western  states  Charles  Raymbault  was  selected ;  and  a! 

Ilnrons  were  his  attendants,  Isaac  Joguos  was  joined  .ith  lii  m 

s  interpreter.     On  tho  seventeenth  S  September  104     the  e 

lorerunncrs  from  Christendom  loft  tho  bay  of  Ponetangi^i;^ 


if 


ir 


B- 


i    8  ? 


f' 


J 

H 

« 

t  ii 

^H' 

1  (t 

i^H 

'   '  i 

i 

S^n 

'      1 

i 

mm 

'  1 

( 

m 

m 

III 


iifs! 


11-J       HIilTISIl  AMERICA  KItOM  1(188  TO  1718.     i-aktiii.;  cii.  ix. 

'riit'V  |);isst'il  ii|>  llici  clciir  Wiiters  and  lu'lwecii  tlie  iircliipiila^oos 
of  Lake  lliiroii,  and  on  (he  ciji.htiKMitli  day  laiidi'd  at  tlio  falls  in 
till'  stfaits  that  t'oriii  (he  out  let  of  the  vast  upper  lake.  There 
they  t'oiiiid  an  asseiiihly,  as  they  ri'ported,  (»!"  t\V(»  thousand  souls. 
They  made  impiiries  ivspectiui;'  the  many  nations  of  thi^  still 
I'emotei'  \\\'st  ;  and  anioiii;' others  they  were  told  of  the  Sioux, 
who  dwelt  eighteen  days'  journey  farther  beyond  the  (ireat 
I/dve  which  was  still  without  a  name;  wai'like  tribes,  with 
lixed  abodes,  cultivators  of  niaizo  and  tobacco,  of  an  unknown 
raci'  and  Iani;uai;v.  The  I'rench  I)orc  the  cross  to  the  contines 
o\'  Lake  ISupi'i'iol',  and  looked  wistfully  toward  the  dwellers  in 
the  valley  of  tlu'  Mississip[)i,  live  years  bi'fore  tlu'  New  Mni;- 
land  Mliot  had  addressed  tho  tribe  of  Indians  that  dwelt  within 
six  miles  of  IJoston  hai'bor. 

After   this   excursion,   IJaynibault  repaired  to  the   Huron 
missions,  wastin;;"  awa_\   with  consumption.     In  midsunnner  oi 
led   to  (..)uebec,  where  he  died.     The  bodv  of 


Kill 


ni   (lesceiu 


this  lirst  apostK' of  Christianity  in  Michii;an,  who  liad  t;'lowed 
with  the  hope  of  bearinj;- the  <;-ospel  throu^li  all  the  Ameriean 
r>arh;ivy,  i-ven  to  the  ocean  that  diviiles  America  from  China, 
was  bui'ied  in  tlu>  .same  se[)ulchre  with  (Miam|»lain. 


Tl 


le  companion  of  Kaym 


ibault 


encountere 


more  dreaded 


0{.\ 


In  .Vuiiiist  Iti-li*,  while  on  tlu'  St.  Lawrence,  he  was  at- 
tacked !iy  a  di'tachmi'nt  of  Mohawks  who  lay  in  wait  for  tho 
larj^e  tlei't  o(  canoes  witli  which  he  was  ascending-  \o  tho 
llmon  missions,  lluroiisand  L.enchmt'u,  cluused  by  tlie  IMo- 
liawks,  make  for  the  shore.     .loi;ues  mii;ht  have  eseaped  ;  but 


tl 


K  .e  wi 


vv  with   him  converts  not   vet  bai)tized. 


Al 


lasistari, 


the  iiToatest    of  the    Huron   warriors,  had   i;-ained   a   i)lace  of 
safetv  :  ob.<ervinii- tKtiiaies  to  be  a  capti\e,  lie  returned  to  him. 


avnii!; 


M' 


hi'other, 


I 


madi'  oa 


th   io    tliee    that    1    wouKl 


share  tliy   t'ortune,  whether  death  or  life;  Iieri'  am  I  to  keep 


niv  vow. 


The  intlictions  ()i"  I'melty  on  the  captives  eontinned  all  the 
way  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Mohawk.  There  they  ar- 
rivt'd  the  eveniui;-  before  tho  festival  t>f  the  assumption  of  the 
A'irii'in;  and  the  Jesuit  fatl'.jr,  as  he  ran  the  puintlet,  eoni- 
forted   himself  with   a    \  ision  o\'   the  i^'lorv  of    tlu'  <,ueen  (tf 


lu'a\eii. 


n  a  see 


end  and  a  third  \  illaii'e.  the  same  suirerini;$- 


iiPi 


1042-1040.  i'maiiEHH  OF  franok:  m  north  America.   143 

w.-ro  o),conntoro(] ;  for  <lay8  and  mghtn  ho  was  al.aiulonod  to 
mn-(,r  an.l  every  tor.nont  wl.icli  petulant  joutli  could  devise 
J>ut  yet  there  was  couHolati.m :  an  ear  of  Indian  corn  on  tlie 
Htalk  waH  thrown  to  the  ^mod  father;  and  .ee !  to  the  broad 
blade  there  clun^^  drops  enough  of  water  or  of  dew  to  baptize 
two  captive  neoi)l.ytes.      Three  Uurons  were  conden.ned  to 
th.^  Ilan.es.     The  brave  Ahasistari,  having-  received  absolution, 
met  tonnents  and  .jeath  with  the  entlnisiasn,  of  a  convert  and 
the  imde  of  the  most  gallant  war-chief  of  his  nation      The 
captive  novice,  Kene  Goupil,  was  seen  to  make  the  Bi-n  of 
the  cross  on  an  infant's  brow;  and  lest  lie  should  "destroy 
he  vdlage  h,   his  cha.-ms,"  his  master,  with  one  blow  froin 
the  tomahawk,  laid  him  lifeless. 

lather  Jogues  was  spared,  and  his  liberty  enlarged.     On 
a  luh  apart,  he  carved  a  long-  cross  on  a  tree,'  an.l  in  the  soli- 
tm  e  nu^.fated  the  nnitati,)n  of  Christ.     Koaming  through  the 
Htately  forests  of  the  JMohawk  valley,  where  on  every  l.and 
were  to  be  seen  the  mighty  deeds  of  the  savage  warriors,  en- 
grave<l  and  <..lored  by  their  own  hands,  he  wrote  the  name  of 
Jrsus  on_  the  bark  of  trees,  r.nd  enteral  into  possession  of  the 
country  ,n  the  name  of  (lod,  often  lilting  up  his  voice  in  a 
ohtary  chant.     J  he  missionary  himself  was  ransomed  by  the 
Dutch  and  sent  to  his  native  land;  but  he  made  haste  to  re- 
nounce the  hono,s  which  awaited  his  martyrlike  .eal,  and  hast- 
eiUHl  ])ack  to  terrible  dangers  in  mnv  France. 

_  Similar  were  the  sulferings  of  Father  Eressani.  Taken 
r-mer  m  1 ,144,  while  on  his  way  to  the  llurons  ;  beaten  and 
mangled    driven  barefoot  through  briers  and  thickets ;  scourged 

to  M.tuess  the  late  of  one  of  liis  com])anions,  whose  flesh  was 

;:!  'r      Tr  T""'""^  ^  • '  ''''''  "0-«torious  awe,  and  he,  too, 
^^  as  rescued  by  the  men  .,f  New  .Xetherland. 

lu  1(;4.>,  the  French  in  Canada,  neglected  by  their  mother 

ount.N,niade  one  supreme  etb.rt  for  a  treaty  of  ..eace  with 

I-  i-e  Nations.     At  Three  Kivors  a  great  coundl  is  1  eld 

1  here  are  the  French  officers  in  their  state  ;  there  the  live  Iro: 

|i.>-  cleimties,  couched  upon  mats,  bearing  strings  of  wani- 

vor  ,      ^7^f'7^  '';  «'r'^^  ^1'-  forest  path,  to  cahn  the 
mei,  to  hHle  the  tomahawk.     "Let  the  clouds  be  dlspez-sed," 


M 


ri' 


U  f 


:   1  ■■:/ 

1 
1 

.1 

1  '  ■ 

l 

1  ', 

j 

■    ^1 

ll-l 


^Hill 


J 
iif 


f 


P. 


144      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    parthi.;  en.  ix. 

said  tlie  Iroquois ;  "  let  the  sun  sliine  on  all  the  land  between 
us."  The  Algoukins  joined  in  the  peace,  "  Here  is  a  skin  of 
a  moose,"  said  Xegabamat,  chief  of  the  Montagnez ;  "  make 
moccasons  for  the  Mohawk  deputies,  lest  they  woiiud  their  feet 
on  their  way  home."  "  We  have  thrown  the  hatchet,"  said  the 
IMohawks,  "  so  higli  into  the  air,  and  beyond  tlie  skies,  that  no 
ai-m  on  earth  can  reach  to  brino-  it  down.  The  French  shall 
sleej)  on  our  softest  skins  by  the  warm  lire  that  shall  be  kept 
blazing  all  the  night  long.  The  shades  of  our  braves  that  have 
fallen  in  Avar  have  gone  so  deep  into  the  earth  that  they  never 
can  be  heard  calling  for  revenge."  "  I  place  a  stone  on  their 
graves,"  said  Pieskaret,  "  that  no  one  may  move  their  bones." 

The  Franciscans  in  their  day  had  a  lodge  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Penobscot.  Conversion  to  Catholic  Christianity  would 
estal)lish  the  Abenakis  of  Maine  as  a  wakeful  barrier  against 
jS'ew  England.  They  had  solicited  missionaries ;  in  August 
lO-tO,  Father  Gabriel  Drcuillettes,  first  of  Europeans,  made  the 
painful  journey  from  the  St,  Lawrence  to  the  sources  of  the 
Kennebec,  and,  descending  that  stream  to  its  mouth,  in  a  bark 
canoe  continued  his  roamings  on  the  open  sea  along  the  coast. 
After  repeated  visits  he  succeeded  in  winning  the  affections  of 
the  savages ;  and  an  Indian  village  gathered  about  the  chapel, 
which  their  own  hands  assisted  to  build, 

Xew  France  had  its  outposts  on  the  Kennebec  and  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Huron ;  but  no  defences  on  the  side  of  Albanv. 
The  population  liardly  increased ;  there  was  no  military  force ; 
and  the  trading  company,  deriving  no  income  l)ut  from  peltries 
and  Indian  traffic,  had  no  motive  to  make  lan>;e  expenditures 
for  protecting  the  settlements  or  promoting  colonization.  The 
strength  of  the  colony  lay  in  the  missionaries.  P>ut  what  could 
sixty  or  seventy  devotees  accompiish  among  the  wild  tribes 
from  Xova  Scotia  to  Lake  Superior  ? 

A  treaty  of  ])eace  had,  indeed,  been  ratified ;  for  one  winter 
Algonkins,  AVyandots,  and  Iroquois  joined  in  tlie  chase.  In 
May  104^),  Father  Jogues  was  received  as  an  envoy  by  the 
^lohawks,  and  gained  an  oi)portunity  of  olfering  the  friend- 
ship of  France  to  the  Onondagas.  On  his  return,  in  June,  his 
favorable  report  raised  a  hope  of  re-establishing  a  i)ermanent 
mission  among  the  Five  Nations ;  a.ud,  as  the  onlv  one  who 


1646-1C53.   PIJOGBESS  OF  FRANCE  IN  XORXn  AMERICA.     145 

knew  their  dialect,  he  was  selected  as  its  founder.  "Ibo  et 
nonredibo"--!  shall  go,  but  shall  never  return  "-were  hL 
words  of  farewell.  On  arnving  at  the  Mohawk  castles,  in 
Octoher  he  wa.  received  as  a  prisoner,  and,  against  the  vdce 
o  .he  other  nations,  was  condemned  by  the  grand  council  of 
the  Mohawks  as  an  enchanter,  who  had  blighted  their  harvest 
As  he  entered  the  cabin  where  the  death-festival  was  kep  t 
received  the  death-blow.  His  head  was  hung  upon  the  ^t 
sades  of  the  village,  his  body  thrown  into  the  Mohawk  river 

This  was  the  signal  for  war.     The  Five  Nations,  especiaiy 
the  Mohawks,  had  persuaded  themselves  that,  if  uH  the  tribes 
to  the  north  of  tlieni  should  unite  with  the  French,  their  own 
confederation  would  be  oveii3owered  and  broken.     This  fear 
for  the  future  con.bined  with  the  unappeased  spirit  of  revenge 
which  had  existed  from  the  days  of  Champlain  and  had  been 
nourished  by  new  wars  and  reciprocal  violence  aiul  clash  ng 
mterests,  had  now  doomed  the  Ilm-on  nation  to  be  exter mf 
nated  or  scattered,  and  each  sedentary  mission  was  a  spedal" 
point  of  attraction  to  the  invader.     On  the  morning  of  July 
4,  1048,  when  the  braves  were  absent  on  the  chase,  and  none 
but  woniei,  children,  and  old  men  remained  at  home,  Father 
Anthony  Daniel,  of  the  village  of  St.  Joseph,  on  tie  river 
Pj  heai-s  the  cry  of  the  Mohawks,  and  hastens  to  the  scene 
of  desolation  and  carnage.     He  baptizes  the  crowd  of  sup- 
pliants by  aspersion ;  just  then  the  palisades  are  forced.     He 
ran  to  comfort  and  baptize  the  sick;  to  pronounce  a  geueral 
aosolution    and  then,  as  the  Mohawks  approach  the  chapel 

a  fl  ght  of  arrows ;  rent  by  wounds,  he  still  continued  to  speak 
M-itli  .surprising  energy,  till  he  received  a  death-blow  from  a 
iialbert  Ly  his  religious  associates  it  was  believed  that  he  ap- 
peared twice  after  his  death,  in  youthful  radiance ;  that  a  crowd 
of  souls  redeemed  from  purgatory,  were  his  escort  into  heav.n. 
On  the  sixteenth  of  March,  1G40,  a  party  of  a  thousand 
Iioquois  surprised  before  dawn  the  village  of  St.  Ignatiu^.  and 
Hii  indiscriminate  massacre  of  the  inhabitants  followed. 

defence.    A  ]>reach  is  made  in  the  palisades  ;  the  enemy  Lter ; 

VOL.    II,— 10  -^  ' 


TY^^n 

^^ 

^;i' 

\i 

at 

i     t 

I    t 

i 

\      f' 

'     i           1 

'1  i 
'1 

i  I' 


1    I 


r^'                     ■! 

'./4 

i 

t 

I  '1 

•*- 

!  i 
1  i 

i 

1 

i 

* 

^^^^ff*^ 

^ 

■  ■  ^  ■ 

■  1  i   \''l 

t 

11 

1:    ^i' 


illii 


146      BRITISH  AMEPwIOA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     part  iii. ;  en.  tx. 

and  the  group  of  Indian  cabins  becomes  a  slaughter-house. 
Here  resided  Jean  de  Brebeuf,  disciplined  by  twenty  years' 
service  in  the  wilderness  work  to  firmness  beyond  every  trial. 
Here,  too,  was  the  younger  and  gentler  Gabriel  Lallemand. 
Both  the  missionaries  might  have  escaped,  but  both  remain 
with  their  converts,  and,  as  prisoners  of  the  ]\[ohawks,  must 
endure  all  the  tortures  which  the  ruthless  fury  of  a  raging 
multitude  could  invent.  Brebeuf,  who  was  set  apart  on  a 
scaffold,  in  the  midst  of  every  outrage,  rebuked  his  persecu- 
tors and  encouraged  the  Ilin-ons.  The  delicate  Lallemand  was 
enveloped  from  head  to  foot  with  bark  full  of  rosin.  Brought 
into  the  presence  of  Brebeuf,  he  exclaimed :  "  We  are  made  a 
spectacle  unto  the  world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men."  The  pine 
bark  was  set  on  lire,  and,  when  it  was  in  a  blaze,  boiling  water 
was  poured  on  the  heads  of  both  the  missionaries.  Brebeuf 
was  Bcalp'^d  while  yet  alive,  and  died  after  a  torture  of  three 
hours ;  the  sufferings  of  Lallemand  were  prolonged  for  seven- 
teen hours.  The  lives  of  both  had  been  a  continual  martyr- 
dom ;  their  deaths  were  the  astouishnient  of  their  executioners. 

The  Jesuits  never  receded ;  but  as,  in  a  brave  army,  new 
troops  press  forward  to  fill  the  places  of  the  fallen,  there  were 
never  wanting  heroism  and  enterprise  in  behalf  of  the  cross 
and  French  dominion. 

The  great  point  of  desire  was  the  conversion  of  the  Five 
Nations.  Undismayed  missionaries  were  eager  to  gain  admis- 
sion among  them,  while  they,  having  through  the  Dutch 
learned  the  use  of  fire-arms,  seemed  resolved  on  asserting 
their  power,  not  only  over  the  barbaiians  of  the  North,  the 
West,  and  the  South-west,  but  over  the  French  themselves. 
The  Ottawas  were  driven  from  their  old  abodes  to  forests  in 


the  bay  of  Saginaw.     No 


frightful 


solitude  in  the  wilderness, 


no  impenetrable  recess  in  the  frozen  North,  was  safe  against 
the  Five  Nations.  Their  chiefs,  animated  not  by  cruelty  only, 
but  by  pride,  were  resolved  that  no  nook  should  escape  their 
invasions,  that  no  nation  should  rule  but  themselves  ;  and  their 
M-arriors,  in  1053,  killed  the  governor  of  Three  Eivers,  and 
earned  off  a  priest  from  Quebec. 

At  length,  satisfied  with  the  display  o"^  their  prowess,  they 
desired  rest.      Besides,  of   the   scattered   Hurous,  nianv  had 


1653-1658.    PEOGRESS  OF  FIJAXCE  IN  NORTH  AMERICA.     147 

sought  refngo  among  their  oppressors,  and.  according  to  an  In- 
dian enstoni,  had  lieen  incorpoi-ated  with  tlieir  tribes ;  and  some 
of  them  retained  affection  for  the  French.  AYlien  in  1654 
peace  was  concluded,  and  Father  Le  Mojne  appeared  as  envoy 
among  tlie  Onondagas  to  ratify  the  treaty,  he  found  tliere  a 
muUitude  of  Hurons,  who,  like  the  Jews  at  Babylon,  retained 
their  faith  in  a  land  of  strangers.  The  hope  was  renewed  of 
winning  the  West  and  North. 

The  villages  bordering  on  the  Dutch  were  indifferent  to 
the  peace;  the  western  tribes,  who  could  more  easily  traffic 
with  the  French,  adhere:!  to  it  iirmly ;  and  Le  JVIoyne  selected 
the  banks  of  tlie  river  of  the  Mohawks  for  his  abode 

In  November  1655,  Chamuonot,  long  a  missionary  among 
the  Hurons,  accompanied  by  Claude  Dablon,  a  priest,  recently 
arrived  from  I  ranee,  and  a  party  of  laymen  and  soldiers,  were 
welcomed  at  Onondaga,  the  principal  village  of  the  tribe     A 
general  convention  was  held  by  their  desire;  under  the  open 
sky  and  before  the  multitudinous  assembly  presents  were  de- 
livered ;  and  the  Jesuit,  with  much  gesture,  after  the  Itahan 
manner,  discoursed  so  eloquently  to  the  crowd  that  it  seemed 
to  Dablon  as  if  the  word  of  God  had  been  preached  to  all  the 
nations  of  that  land.     On  the  next  day,  the  chiefs  and  others 
crowded  ;-omid   the   Jesuits,  with  their  songs   of  welcome. 
Happy  land  "  they  sang;    "happy  land!    in  which    the 
French  are  to  dwell ; "  and  the  chief  led  the  chorus :  "  Glad  ti 
dings :  glad  tidings !  it  is  well  tliat  we  have  spoken  toc^ether  • 
It  IS  well  that  we  have  a  heavenly  message."    A  chapel'spnmc^ 
into  existence,  and,  by  the  zeal  of  the  natives,  was  finished  in 
a  day.      'For  niari.les  and  precious  metals,"  writes   Dablon 
we  employed  only  bark;  but  the  path  to  heaven  is  as  open 
through  a  roof  of  bark  as  tlirough  arched  ceilings  of  silver  and 
gold.'      J  lie  savages  showed  themselves  susceptible  of  relio-ious 
ecstasy;  and  in  the  heart  of  New  York,  near  tlie  present^ity 
of  Syracuse  hard  by  the  spring  which  is  still  known  as  (he 
Jesuits  ^^  eU  the  services  of  the  Koman  church  were  securely 
Chan  cd.     The  cross  and  the  lily  were  cherished  in  the  hamlet 
;vhicli  was  at  that  time  the  farthest  inland  European  settlement 
m  our  country,  and  Jong  preceded  the  occupation  of  westei-n 
iSewloi'k  by  the  English. 


IMP'  '^ 


'\  • 


1 

,                    *  j 
i    - 

1 

\  [ 

1 

1  ^ ;  V 

1  ,  \ 

'  l^^^l 

[     1  i   1; 

^H 

\ 

1— 

•:'         ■' 

I 

'1  ■ 

1 

i 

J 

148      BRITISH  AMLiiICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  iii.  ;  on.  ix. 


I'l     '^^ll 


'f: 


The  success  of  the  mission  encouraged  Dablon  to  invite  a 
Frencli  colony  into  the  land  of  the  Ouondagas ;  and,  though 
the  attempt  excited  the  jealousy  of  the  Mohawks,  whose  war- 
chiefs,  in  their  hunt  after  Huron  fugitives,  still  roamed  even 
to  the  isle  of  Orleans,  hi  May  1(550,  a  company  of  fifty  French- 
men embarked  for  Onondaga.  In  July,  dilfuse  harangues, 
dances,  songs,  and  feastings  were  their  welcome  from  the  In- 
dians. In  a  general  convocation  of  the  tribe,  the  question  of 
adoj)ting  Christianity  as  their  religion  was  debated ;  and  san- 
guine hope  already  looked  upon  their  land  as  a  part  of  Chris- 
tendom. The  chapel,  too  small  for  the  throng  of  worshippers 
that  assembled  to  the  sound  of  its  little  bell,  a\  as  enlarged. 
The  Cayugas  desired  a  missionary,  and  received  the  fearless 
Reno  Mesnard.  In  their  village  a  chapel  was  erected,  Avitli 
mats  for  the  tapestry ;  and  pictures  of  the  l?avxour  and  of  the 
Virgin  mother  were  unfolded  to  the  admiring  children  of  the 
wilderness.  The  Oneidas  listened  to  the  missionary ;  and,  ear- 
ly in  1G57,  Chaumonot  reached  the  more  fertile  and  more 
densely  peo]>led  land  of  the  Senecas.  The  Jesuit  priests  pub- 
lished their  faith  from  the  Mohawk  to  the  Genesee,  Oiionda- 
ga  remaining  the  central  station. 

At  this  time,  the  rathless  extennination  of  the  nation  of 
the  IIuron-Eries,  who  dwelt  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake 
Erie,  Avas  com])leted.  Prisoners  were  brought  to  the  villages 
and  delivered  to  the  flames ;  even  children  were  burned  with 
refinements  of  tortures.  "  Our  lives,"  said  Mesnard,  "  are  not 
safe."  In  Quebec,  and  in  France,  men  trembled  for  the  mis- 
sionaries. Their  home  was  among  cannibals;  hunger,  thirst, 
nakedness,  were  their  trials ;  and  the  first  colony  of  the  French, 
established  near  the  lake  of  Onondaga,  suffered  from  ioxcr. 
Border  collisions  continued.  The  Oneidas  nnu'dered  three 
Frenchmen,  and  the  French  retaliated  by  seizing  Iroquois. 
After  discovering  a  consi)iracy  among  the  Ouondagas,  and 
vainly  soliciting  re-enforcements,  the  French,  in  Marcli  1058, 
abandoned  their  chapel,  their  cabins,  and  the  valley  of  the 
Oswego.  The  Mohawks  compelled  Le  IMoyne  to  retura ;  and 
the  French  and  tlie  Five  Nations  were  enemies  as  before.  So 
ended  the  most  successful  attempt  at  French  colonization  in 
New  Xetherland. 


1660-1663.    FRANCE  AND  TUE  MISSISHIPPI  V.\XLEY.  149 


CHAPTEli  X. 

FR-^LNCE  AND   THE   VALLEY   OF   THE   msSISSIPPI. 

Xew  Fr^vnce  was  too  feeble  to  defend  itself  against  the 
J^  ive  Nations,  to  uliicli  it  was  inferior  in  nnmbers.     Its  harvest 
could  not  be  gathered  in  safety;  the  convents  and  the  hospi- 
tals wore  nusecnre ;  an  ecclesiastic  was  killed  near  the  gates  of 
Montreal;   the  missions  among  the  Ilurons  had  been  extin 
gn.shed  m  blood;   and  the  fugitives  could  find  no  restiuff- 
1>  ace  nearer  than  a  bay  in  Lake  Superior,  within  the  limits 
o(  the  present  state  of  Michigan.     Many  prepared  to  abandon 
tlie^  country.     A  new  organization  of  the  colony  was  needed 
or  It  must  come  to  an  end.     Louis  XIV.  at  five  years  old  had 
become  kmg  of  France;  at  thirteen,  had  declared  himself  of 
age;  and,  at  twenty-three,  assumed  to  act  as  his  own  chief 
mnnster. 

In  Febniary  10(]3,  the  company  of  the  Hundred  Associates 
made  a  surrender  of  their  charter,  which,  in  the  following  montli, 
be  king  then  but  twenty-four  years  of  age,  accepted  in  the 
hope,  through  the  re-establishment  of  commerce,"  to  create 
abundance  for  his  people."  In  the  new  regulations,  Quebec 
tor  the  first  time  was  called  a  city,  and  New  France  became  a 
royal  province  or  kingdom. 

At  once  a  Jesuit^ historian  of  Canada  implored  tlie  royal 
aid  against  the  Iroquois  assassins,  robbers,  and  slow-toituruicr 
executioners  saying:  -New  France  is  thine,  most  ChristiaS 
king.  On  thee,  its  state  and  its  church  place  all  their  hopes. 
Leat  down  with  iron  the  atrocity  of  the  Iro.piois;  so  shall  the 
kmgdom  of  Christ  and  thy  kingdom  be  extended  far  and  wide, 
and  (xod  may  grant  thee  to  exalt  the  dauphin  to  the  highest 
summit  of  human  greatness." 


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150        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     rAiniii.;  cii.  x. 

In  IVfay  1004,  the  king  granted  to  a  new  company  of  tlie 
West  Indies,  for  forty  years,  tlie  exclusive  j)rivilege  of  all 
French  conunerce  and  navigation  in  North  and  Soutli  America, 
excepting  only  the  fisheries,  which  remained  free  for  every 
Frenchman.  But  eleven  months  did  not  pass  before  the  en- 
treaty of  the  colonists  for  freedom  of  commerce  brought  about 
a  compromise. 

As  a  result  of  the  direct  rule  of  the  king,  the  year  10G5  saw 
the  colony  of  New  France  protected  by  the  royal  regiment  of 
Carignan,  with  the  aged  but  indefatigable  Tracy  as  general ; 
■svith  Courcelles,  a  veteran  soldier,  as  governor;  and  with 
Talcn,  a  man  of  business  and  of  integrity,  as  intendant  and 
repi'cscntativo  of  tl.f.e  king  in  civil  alfairs.  The  Iro(|Uois  were 
held  in  check,  bnt  not  subdued. 

In  October  lOGO,  tlie  Jesuit  Ilene  Mesnard  had  trans- 
ferred the  mission  of  Christian  savages  that  tied  before  the 
Iroquois  to  the  bay  which  he  called  St.  Theresa,  and  which 
may  have  been  the  ])ay  of  KeweenaM',  on  the  south  shore  of 
Lake  Superior,  After  a  residence  of  eight  montlis,  on  a  jour- 
ney to  Green  Bay  he  was  separated  frum  his  guide  and  was 
never  again  seen. 

In  Angust  1005,  Fatlier  Claude  Alloiiez  embarked  by  way 
of  the  Ottawa  for  the  far  West,,  Early  in  September,  he 
reached  the  rapid  river  through  wliicii  the  waters  of  the  upper 
lakes  rush  to  the  Huron.  On  the  second  of  that  month,  he  en- 
tered the  "  Superior "  or  upper  lake,  which  the  savages  rever- 
enced as  a  divinity,  its  entrance  presented  to  him  a  specta- 
cle of  nigged  grandeur.  lie  passed  the  lofty  ridge  of  naked 
sand,  which  marks  the  shore  by  its  stupendous  piles  of  drifting 
l)arrenness ;  he  sailed  beycjiid  the  cliffs  of  pictured  sandstone, 
M-hich  for  twelve  miles  rise  three  hundred  feet  in  height,  fretted 
by  tlie  chafing  waves  into  arches  and  bastions,  caverns  and 
walls,  heaps  of  prostrate  ruins,  and  erect  columns  seemingly 
crowned  with  entablatures.  On  the  first  day  of  October,  he 
arrived  at  the  great  village  of  the  Ojibwas  in  the  bay  of  Che- 
goimegon,  now  within  the  hmits  of  the  state  of  Wiscon- 
sin. It  Avas  at  a  moment  when  the  young  A\-arriors  Avere  bent 
on  a  strife  with  the  warlike  Sioux.  A  grand  council  of  ten  or 
twelve  neighboring  nations  was  held  to  wrest  the  hatchet  from 


I 


16C5-1CC8.    FRANCE  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  151 

the  rash  braves ;  and  AUoiiez  was  admitted  to  the  assembly 
In  the  name  of  Louis  XIV.  and  his  viceroy,  he  commanded 
peace,  and  offered  commerce  and  an  alHance  against  the  Iro- 
(luois ;  the  soldiers  of  France  would  smooth  the  path  between 
the  Ojibwiis  and  Quebec ;  would  bnish  pirate  canoes  from  the 
rivers ;  would  leave  to  the  Five  Nations  no  choice  but  between 
peace  and  destruction.     Before  1007,  on  the  shore  of  the  bay, 
to  which  the  abundant  fisheries  attracted  crowds,  a  chajiel  rose' 
and  the  mission  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  founded.     Throngs 
came  to  gaze  on  the  white  man,  and  on  the  pictures  which 
he  displayed  of  heU  and  of  the  last  judgment;  and  a  choir 
learned   to  chant  the  pater  and  the  ave.     During  his  long 
sojourn,  AUoiiez  lighted   the  torch  of  faith  for  more  than 
twenty  different  nations.    The  dwellers  round  the  Sault,  a  band 
of  the  Ojibwas,  pitched  their  tents  near  his  cabin  for  a  month 
and  received  his  instructions.     Scattered  Ilurons  and  Ottawas' 
that  roamed  the  deserts  north  of  Lake  Superior,  appealed  to 
his  compassion,  and  were  visited  by  him  ])eforo  his  return 
From  the  unexplored  recesses  of  Luke  Michigan  the  Potta- 
watomies,  worshippers  of  the  sun,  invited  him  to  their  homes. 
The  Sacs  and  Foxes  travelled  to  him  on  foot  from  their  coun- 
try, which  aljounded  in  deer  and  l)eaver  and  buffalo.     The 
Illinois,  a  hospitable  race,  unaccustomed  to  canoes,  havinp-  no 
weapon   but  the   bow  and  arrow,  rehearsed  their  sufl'eSn.^ 
from  the  Sioux  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Iroquois,  armed  wiSi 
muskets,  on  the  other.     Curiosity  was  roused  by  their  tale  of 
the  noble  river  on  which  they  dwelt,  and  which  flowed  toward 
the  south.     "They  had  no  forests,  but,  instead  of  them,  vast 
prairies,  where  herds  of  deer  and  buffalo,  and  other  animals, 
grazed  on  the  tall  grasses."     They  exi)lained  their  custom  of 
smoking  with  the  friendly  stranger  the  calumet  or  pipe  of 
peace  and  welcoming  him.     "Their  country,"  said  AUoiiez 
"  is  the  best  field  for  tlie  gospel."  ' 

There,  too,  at  the  extremity  of  the  lake,  the  missionary 
met  the  imj^assive  warriors  of  the  Sioux,  who  dwelt  to  the 
west  of  Lake  Superior,  in  a  land  of  prairies,  with  wild  nee 
for  food,  and  skins  of  beasts  for  roofs  to  tlieir  cabins,  on  the 
banks  of  the  gi-eat  river,  of  which  AUoiiez  reiiorted  the  name 
to  be  "^'-     •  •" 


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152       BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    vaht  m.;  on.  x. 


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"Vyiiilo  tho  JesuitH  were  forming  alliances  in  the  heart  of 
the  continent,  Talon  sought  to  use  the  faithlessness  of  Charles 
II.  for  tho  benefit  of  France.  In  tho  war  with  Holland,  En<j;- 
land  had  gained  possession  of  what  is  now  New  York.  Talon 
advised  Colbert  in  the  negotiations  for  peace  betAveen  tho 
United  Netherlands  and  England  to  take  care  to  stipulate  for 
its  restitution ;  Ijut  first  by  a  secret  treaty  to  obtain  a  grant  of 
it  from  the  Netherlands.  "Tho  country,"  he  wrote,  "would 
give  to  the  king  a  second  entrance  into  Canada ;  would  secure 
to  the  l''rench  all  the  peltry  of  the  north ;  would  jjlace  the  Iro- 
quois at  the  mercy  of  his  majesty..  Moreover,  the  king  could 
take  New  Sweden  when  he  pleased,  and  shut  up  New  England 
within  its  own  bounds,'' 

After  residing  nearly  two  years  chiefly  on  the  southern 
margin  of  Lake  Su]ierior,  Alloiiez,  in  August  1067,  returning 
to  Quebec,  urged  the  establishment  of  ])ermanent  missions 
and  colonies  of  French  emigrants ;  and  such  was  his  own  fer- 
vor, such  the  earnestness  with  which  he  was  seconded,  that, 
in  two  days,  with  another  priest,  Louis  Nicolas,  for  his  com- 
panion, he  was  on  his  way  back  to  the  mission  at  Chegoimegon. 
In  this  year,  some  Indians  gave  to  the  French  a  massive  s])eci- 
men  of  very  pure  copper  ore. 

The  prevalence  of  peace  favored  the  progress  of  French 
dominion ;  a  recruit  of  missionaries  had  arrived  from  France ; 
and  Claude  Dablon  and  James  Manpictte  rejiaired  to  the 
Ojibwas  at  the  Sault,  to  establish  the  mission  of  St.  Mary.  It 
is  the  oldest  settlement  begun  by  Europeans  ^-ithin  the  com- 
monwealth of  Michigan. 

For  the  succeeding  years,  the  illustrious  trium\nrate,  Al- 
loiiez, Dal)lon,  and  IMarrpiette,  aided  by  other  Jesuit  priests, 
extended  the  influence  of  France  to  the  head  of  Lake  Supe- 
rior on  the  one  side  and  to  Green  Bay  on  the  other.  From 
Green  bay  tlio  Fox  rivci'  was  ascended  and  a  mission  was  estab- 
lished on  its  banks,  where  it  approaches  nearest  to  waters  flow- 
ing to  the  south-west.  Each  missionary  among  the  barl)arians 
must  expose  himself  to  the  inclemencies  of  nature  and  of  man. 
He  defies  the  severity  of  climate,  wading  throng]  water  or 
through  snows,  without  the  comfort  of  fire ;  having  no  bread 
but  pounded  maize,  and  often  no  food  but  moss  from  the 


If  >  I 


I 


10C8-1C72.    FIIANOE  AND  THE  MlSSISSIPn   VALLEY.         153 

roclcs ;  laboring  incessantly ;  exposed  to  live,  as  it  were,  with- 
out nourisliineiit,  to  Kloep  without  a  resting-place,  to  travel  far 
and  always  to  carry  his  life  in  his  hand,  expecting  captivity  or 
death  by  the  tomahawk,  tortures,  and  tire.  And  yet  the  wil- 
derness had  for  him  its  charms.  Under  a  serene  sky,  and 
with  a  mild  temperature,  and  breathing  a  pure  air,  ho  moved 
over  lakes  as  transparent  as  the  most  hm])id  fountain  or  waters 
that  glided  between  i)rairies  or  ancient  groves.  Every  en- 
campment ofl'ered  his  attendants  the  pleasures  (^f  the  chase. 
Like  a  patriarch,  ho  dwelt  beneath  a  tent ;  and  of  the  land 
through  which  he  walked,  ho  was  tho  master.  How  often  was 
the  pillow  of  stones  like  that  where  Jacob  felt  the  presenco  of 
God  I  If  ow  often  did  tho  ancient  oak,  of  which  tho  centuries 
were  untold,  seem  like  the  ti-eo  of  :Mamro,  beneath  which 
Abraham  broke  bread  with  angels ! 

The  purpose  of  discovering  tho  Mississippi  sprung  up  in 
tho  mind  of  Manpiotte.  Moved  by  the  accounts  of  i^t  which 
ho  gathered  from  the  natives,  bo  would  have  attempted  it  in 
tho  autumn  of  lOOO;  and,  when  ordered  to  the  mission  at 
Chcgoimegon,  which  Alloiiez  left  for  a  new  one  at  Green 
Bay,  ho  took  with  him  a  yoimg  man  of  tho  Illinois  to  teach 
him  their  language. 

Contimied  commerce  Avith  the  French  gave  protection  to 
tho  Algonkins  of  the  West,  and  confa-mod  their  attachment. 
A  strong  interest  in  Z^o.^y  b^ranco  grow  u]^  in  Colbert  and  tbe 
other  ministers  of  Louis  XIY.  It  became  tho  aml)ition  of 
Talon,  tho  intendant  at  Quebec,  to  send  the  banner  of  Franco 
even  to  tho  Pacific.  As  soon  as  he  disembarked  at  Quebec,  he 
made  choice  of  Saint-Lussou  to  hold  a  congress  at  the  falls  of 
St.  Mary.  The  invitation  was  sent  in  every  direction  for  more 
than  a  hundred  leagues  round  about;  and  fourteen  nations, 
among  them  Sacs,  Foxes,  and  Miamis,  agreed  to  be  present  l)y 
their  amljassadors. 

The  fourth  of  Juno  IGTl,  the  day  appointed  for  the  con- 
gress of  nations,  arrived  ;  and,  with  Alloiiez  as  his  interpreter, 
Saint-Lusson,  fresh  from  an  excursion  to  the  borders  of  the 
Kennebec,  appeared  at  tho  falls  of  St.  Mary  as  tho  delegate  of 
the  king  of  Franco.  It  was  announced  to  the  natives,  who 
were  gathered  from  the  headsprings  of  iho  St.  LaAvrence,  the 


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154        BRITISir  AMEIIICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    pakt  iii. ;  en.  x. 

Mis8isHi[)pi,  and  the  Rod  river,  that  they  were  placed  under 
his  prutectiun.      On  the  bunks  of  the  St.  Mary,  where  the 
houndliiff  river  leii[)8  along  the  rocks,  a  cross  of  cechir  was 
ruis3(l,  and,  in  tlie  i)rerienco  of  tlie  ancient  i-aces  of  Anieiica, 
the  Frencli  chanted  that  hymn  of  tlie  seventh  centiuy : 
Vexilla  Regis  lu'odeunt ; 
Kulget  crucis  niysteriinn  : 
The  banners  of  lieaven's  King  advance ; 
Tlie  mystery  of  the  cross  shines  forth. 
In  the  invsence  of  the  ancient  races  of  the  land  a  column, 
marked  witli  the  lilies  of  the  Rourbons,  M'as  planted  in  the 
heart  of  the  continent. 

In  the  same  year,  Marquette  gathered  the  wandering  re- 
mains of  one  branch  of  the  Huron  nation  round  a  cha])el  at 
Point  St.  Ignace,  on  the  northern  side  of  the  strait  of  Jklichili- 
machinac.  The  climate  was  repulsive ;  but  ti.sh  abounded  at 
all  seasons  in  the  stniit;  ;md  the  establishment  was  long  main- 
tained as  the  key  to  the  West,  and  tlio  conxenient  rendezvous 
of  the  remote  Algonkins.  Here  ^Earquette  once  more  gained 
a  plnne  among  the  founders  of  Michigan.  ]S"icolas  Perrot,  an 
adT  cnturous  explorer,  attempted  the  discovery  of  copper  mines. 

The  countries  south  of  the  village  founded  by  ^ranjuette 
were  explored  l)y  Alloiiez  and  Dablon,  who  bore  the  cross 
through  eastern  "Wisconsin  and  the  north  of  Illinois,  visiting 
the  Mascoutins  and  the  Kickapoos  on  the  Milwaukee,  and  the 
Miamis  at  the  head  of  Lake  jVIichigan.  The  young  men  of 
the  latter  tribe,  intent  on  an  excursion  against  the  Sioux,  en- 
treated the  missionaries  to  give  them  the  victory.  After  lin- 
ishing  the  circuit,  Alloiiez  made  an  excursion  to  the  cabins  of 
the  Foxes  on  the  river  which  bears  their  name. 

The  long-expected  discovery  of  the  Mississippi  was  at  hand, 
to  be  accomplished  by  James  Manpiette  and  by  Louis  Jt)lliet. 
The  cnterjH'ise  was  favored  by  Talon,  who,  on  the  point  of 
quitting  Canada,  wished  to  signalize  the  last  years  of  his  stay 
by  opening  for  France  the  way  to  the  western  ocean;  and 
who,  immediately  f>n  the  arriva.l  of  Froutenac  from  France, 
in  1672,  had  advised  him  to  em2)loy  Louis  Jolli(;t  in  the  dis- 
covery. Jolliet  was  a  native  of  Quebec,  educated  at  its  col- 
lege, and  a  man  "of  great  experience"  as  a  wayfarer  in  the 


1078.         FRANCE   AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY,  155 

\nlderness.  lie  had  already  been  in  tlio  neiold»()rliood  of  the 
cn-eat  river  which  was  called  tlie  Mississippi,  aiid  which  at  that 
lime  was  supposed  to  discharge  itself  into  tlie  gulf  of  Califor- 
nia ;  and  early  in  ir.73  ho  entered  on  his  great  cai.3er. 

A  branch  of  the  Pottawatomies,  familiar  vitli  .Man^uotte  as 
a  missionary,  heard  with  wonder  the  daring  proposal.  "Those 
distant  nations,"  said  they,  'Miever  spare  the  stranger;  their 
nuitual  wars  fill  their  bordera  with  bands  of  warriors;  the  "-reat 
river  abonnds  in  monsters,  which  devour  both  men  and  canoes ; 
the  excessive  heats  occasion  death,"  "  I  shall  gladly  lay  down' 
my  life  for  the  salvai'on  of  souls,"  replied  the  good  father ;  and 
the  docile  nation  joined  liim  in  prayer. 

At  the  last  village  on  Fox  river  M-hieh  had  as  yet  boon  vis- 
ited by  the  French— where  Kickapoos,  Mascoiilins,and  I^Iiamis 
dwelt  together  on  a  hill  in  the  centre  of  prairies  and  groves 
that  extended  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  and  where  A^louez 
had  already  raised  the  cross  which  the  savages  had  ornamented 
with  brilliant  skins  and  crimson  belts,  a  thaid^-ott'ering  to  the 
great  Manitou— the  ancients  received  the  pilgrims  in  council, 
of  whom  Marquette  was  but  thirty-six  years  old,  and  Jolliet 
but  seven-and-twenty,  "My  companion,"  said  :Marquette,  "is 
an  envoy  of  France  to  discover  new  countries ;  and  I  am  am- 
bassador from  God  to  eidighten  them  with  the  gospel ; "  and, 
ofjering  presents,  he  be"-<jjed  two  guides  for  the  morrow'.  The 
wild  men  answered  comteously,  and  gave  in  return  a  mat,  to 
serve  as  a  couch  during  the  long  voya<i-e. 

Behold,  then,  in  1()73,  on  the  tenth  day  of  June,  James  Mar- 
quette and  Louis  Jolliet,  live  Frenchmen  as  companions,  and  two 
Algonkins  as  guides,  dragging  their  two  canoes  across  the  nar- 
row portage  that  divides  the  Fox  river  from  the  Wisconsin. 
They  reach  the  water-shed ;  uttering  a  special  prayer  to  the  im- 
maculate Virgin,  they  part  from  the  streams  that  could  have 
borne  their  greetings  to  the  castle  of  Quebec.  "  The  guides 
returned,"  says  the  gentle  Manjuette,  "  leaving  us  alone,  in  this 
unknown  land,  in  the  hands  of  Providence."  Embarking  on 
the  broad  Wisconsin,  the  discoverers  went  solitarily  down  its 
cuiTont,  between  alternate  plains  and  hillsides,  behold'ing  neither 
man  nor  familiar  beasts ;  no  somid  broke  the  silence \ut  the 
ripple  of  their  canoes  and  the  lowing  of  the  buffalo.    In  seven 


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156        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1718.     i-autiii.;  cii.  x 

days  "they  ontered  liiii)pily  the  great  river,  with  a  joy  that 
could  not  bo  expressed ; "  and,  raising  their  sails  under  new 
skies  ;.nd  to  unknown  breezes,  lloated  down  the  calm  mag- 
nificence of  the  ocean  stream,  over  clear  sand-bars,  the  resort  of 
innumeral)lo  watei'-fowl ;  through  clusters  of  islets  tufted  with 
massive  thickets,  and  between  the  natural  parks  of  IlHnois  and 
Iowa. 

About  sixty  leagues  below  the  "Wisconsin,  the  western  banlc 
of  the  Mississippi  bore  on  its  sands  the  trail  of  men;  ;i  foot- 
path was  discerned  leading  into  bcautitul  iields;  and  Jolliet 
and  Marquette  resolved  alone  to  brave  a  meeting  with  the  sav- 
ages. After  walking  six  miles,  they  belieUl  a  village  on  the 
banks  of  a  river,  and  two  others  on  a  slope,  at  a  distance  of  a 
mile  and  a  half  from  the  Urst.  The  river  was  the  Moingona, 
of  which  we  have  corrui)ted  the  name  into  Des  Moines.  Mar- 
quette and  Jolliet,  the  lirst  white  men  who  trod  the  soil  of 
L>\\a,  commending  themselves  to  (iod,  uttered  a  loud  cry. 
Four  old  men  advanced  slowly  to  meet  them,  bearing  the  peace- 
pipe,  brilliant  with  many  colored  i)i(mies.  "  We  are  Illinois," 
said  they — that  is,  when  translated,  "  We  are  men  ;"  and  they 
olfered  the  calumet.  An  aged  chief  received  them  at  his  cabii' 
with  upraised  hands,  exclaiming:  "IIow  beautiful  is  the  sua, 
Frenchman,  when  thou  comest  to  visit  us !  Our  village  awaits 
thee;  enter  in  peace  into  our  d, veilings." 

To  the  council  Mar<piette  published  the  one  true  God,  their 
Creator.  He  spoke  of  tiie  great  captain  of  the  French,  the 
governor  of  Canada,  M'ho  had  chastised  the  Five  Nations  and 
connnamled  peace ;  and  he  questioTied  them  resnecting  the 
Miirsissippi  and  the  tribes  that  possessed  its  banks. 

After  six  days'  delay,  aiul  invitations  to  new  visits,  the 
chieftain  of  the  tribe,  with  hundreds  of  warriors,  attended  the 
strangers  to  their  canoes ;  and,  selecting  a  i)eace-pipe  embel- 
hshed  with  the  liead  and  neck  of  brilliant  birds,  and  feathered 
over  with  [)lumage  of  various  luies,  they  hung  round  Mar- 
quette the  sacred  calumet,  the  mysteridiis  arbiter  of  peace  and 
war,  a  safeguard  among  the  nations. 

"I  did  not  fear  death,"  says  Marquette,  in  .July;  "  I  should 
have  esteemed  it  the  greatest  lia[)piiiess  to  have  died  for  the 
glory  of  Ciod."     They  i)assed  the  perj)cndicular  rocks,  which 


1673.  FRANCE  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  157 

wore  the  appearance  of  monsters ;  tlioy  lieard  at  a  distance  the 
noise  of  the  waters  of  tlie  Missouri,  known  to  them  by  its  AI- 
gonkin  name  of  Pekitanoni ;  and,w]ien  thej  came  to  the  grand- 
est coniluence  of  rivers  in  the  Avoi-ld,  wJiere  the  swifter  Mis- 
souri rushes  like  a  conqueror  into  the  cahner  Mississippi,  drag- 
ging it,  as  it  were,  hastily  to  the  sea,  the  n-ood  Manpiette  resolvS 
m  his  iieart  one  day  to  ascend  tlie  miglity  river  to  its  source ;  to 
cross  the  ridge  that  divides  tlie  oceans ;  and,  descending  a  west- 
erly flowing  stream,  to  publish  the  gospel  to  all  the  people  of 
this  New  World.  ^     ^ 

In  a  little  less  than  forty  leagues  the  canoes  floated  past 
the  Ohio,  which  then,  and  long  afterward,  was  called  the 
Wabash.  Its  bank's  were  tenanted  l)y  numerous  villages  of 
tlie  ])eaceful  Shawnees,  who  (piailed  mider  the  incursiwis  of 
the  Iroquois. 

The  thick  canes  begin  to  appear  so  close  and  strong  that 
the  buffalo  could  not  break  through  them  ;  the  insects  become 
intolerable  ;  as  a  shelter  against  the  suns  of  July  the  sails  are 
folded  into  an  awning.  The  prairies  vanish ;  and  forests  of 
whitewood,  adinii.ible  for  their  vastiiess  and  height,  crowd 
even  to  the  skirts  of  the  pebbly  shore.  In  the  land  of  the 
Chicasas  fire-arms  were  already  in  use. 

Near  the  latitude  of  thirty-three  degrees,  on  the  western 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  stood  the  village  of  Mitchigamea,  in 
a  region  that  had  not  been  visited  bv  Europeans  since  the  doys 
of  De  S..to.  -  mu,"  thought  MaiYpiette,  "  we  must,  indeed, 
ask  the  aid  of  the  Virgin."  Armed  with  bows  and  arrows, 
with  clubs,  axes,  and  bucklers,  auiid  continual  whoops,  the  na- 
tives embark  in  boats  made  of  the  trunks  of  huge  hollow 
rrecs ;  l)ut.  nt  the  sight  of  the  peace-pipe  held  aloft,  tbey  threw 
dusnitluir  bows  and  quivers  and  ].repared  a  hospitable  wel- 
come. 

The  next  day  a  long,  wooden  boat,  containing  te  :  men,  es- 
corted the  discoverers,  for  eight  or  ten  leajjues,  to  the  village 
of  Akansea,  the  limit  of  tlieir  voyage.  They  had  left  the  iv- 
gion  of  tl.e  Algonkins,  and,  in  the  midst  of  'the  Dakotas  and 
Chicasas,  could  spe-ak  only  hy  an  inte!-preter.  A  half  league 
above  Akansea  they  were  met  by  two  boats,  ii,  one  of  wldch 
stood  the  commander,  holding  in  his  hand  the  peace-pipe,  and 


V. 


V  »f ' 


i' 


^ 


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I 


:     1    ' 

j 

^  1 1 '    ' 

ii 

158        BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.     part  m. ;  en.  x. 


m 


ft  -f 


singing  as  lie  drew  near.  After  oiTering  the  pipe  lie  gave 
bread  of  maize.  The  wealth  of  his  tribe  consisted  in  Imlfalo- 
skins  ;  their  weapons  were  axes  of  steel — a  proof  of  commerce 
with  Europeans. 

Having  descended  below  the  entrance  of  the  Arkansas, 
and  having  ascertained  tliat  the  father  of  rivers  went  not  to 
the  Gulf  of  California,  but  was  undoubtedly  the  river  of  the 
8piritu  Santo  of  the  Spaniards  which  pours  its  Hood  of  waters 
into  tlie  Gulf  of  Mexico,  on  the  seventeenth  of  July  Mar- 
quette and  Jolliet  left  Akansea  and  ascended  the  Mississijipi, 
lia\-ing  the  greatest  diificulty  in  stemming  its  current 

At  tJie  thirty-eiglith  degree  of  latitude  they  entered  the 
river  Illinois,  wliich  was  broad  and  deep,  and  peaceful  in  its 
flow.  Its  banks  were  without  a  paragon  for  its  prairies  and  its 
forests,  its  l)uffaloes  and  deer,  its  turkeys  and  geese  and  many 
kinds  of  game,  and  even  beavers  ;  and  there  wove  many  small 
lakes  and  rivulets.  '"  AVlion  I  was  told  of  a  country  without 
trees,"  wrote  Jolliet,  "  I  imagined  a  country  that  had  been 
burned  over,  or  of  a  soil  too  poor  to  produce  anything ;  but 
Ave  have  remarked  just  the  contrary,  and  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble to  find  a  better  soil  for  grain,  for  vines,  or  any  fniits  what- 
ever." He  held  the  country  on  the  Illinois  river  to  be  the 
most  beautiful  and  tlic  most  easy  to  colonize.  "  Tliere  is  no 
need,"  he  said,  "  that  an  emigrant  sliould  employ  ten  years  in 
cutti]ig  down  the  forest  and  Inirning  it.  On  the  day  of  liis 
arrival  the  emigrant  could  put  the  plough  into  the  earth."  The 
tribe  of  the  Illinois  entreated  Marquette  to  come  back  and  re- 
side among  them.  One  of  their  chiefs  with  young  men  guided 
tlie  party  to  the  portage,  wliioli,  in  spring  and  the  early  part  <»f 
summer,  was  but  half  a  league  long,  and  they  easily  readied 
tJie  lake.  "  The  place  at  which  we  entered  the  lake,"  to  use 
the  words  of  elolliet,  "  is  a  harbor  very  convenient  to  receive 
ships  and  to  give  them  protection  against  the  wind."  Be- 
fore the  end  of  September  the  explorers  were  safe  in  Green 
Bay  ;  Imt  Marcpiette  was  exhausted  l)y  liis  labors. 

At  Quel)ec,  while  Jolliet's  jourual  was  waited  for,  the  ut'l- 
ity  of  the  discovery  was  at  once  set  forth  :  It  will  "pen  ri'o 
widest  field  for  the  puT)lication  of  the  Christian  faith ;  the 
way  to  the  (hilf  of  California,  and  so  to  the  seas  of  Japan 


I^M'i 


1673-1675.    FRANCE  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  159 

and  Cliina,  will  be  found  by  ascending  the  Missonri  to  tlie 
water-shed  on  the  west;  an  admiral jle  line  of  navigation  may 
be  opened  between  Quebec  and  Florida  by  cutting  through 
the  portage  between  Chicago  and  the  Illinois  river;  moreover 
the  noblest  opportunity  is  given  for  planting  colonies  in  a 
countiy  which  is  vast  and  beautiful  and  most  fertile  In  a  re- 
lation sent,  in  1074,  by  Fatlier  Dabl..n,  it  was  proposed  to 
connect  Lake  Michigan  with  the  Illinois  river  by  a  canal. 

In  1075,  JMarcpiette,  who  had  been  delayed  by  his  i\dling 
health  for  inore  than  a  year,  rejoined  the  Illinois  on  their  river 
Assembling  the  tribe,  whose  chiefs  and  men  were  reckoned  at 
two  thousand,  he  raised  before  them  pictures  of  the  Yiro-in 
Mary,  spoke  to  them  of  one  who  had  died  on  the  cross  for'ali 
men,  and  built  an  altar  and  said  mass  in  their  presence  on  the 
prairie.     Again  celebrating  the  mystery  of  the  euchnrist,  on 
Easter  Sunday  he  took  possession  of  the  land  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and,  to  the  joy  cf  the  multitude,  founded  the 
mission  of  the  Immaculate  Conception.     This  work  bein-  ac- 
complislied,  his  health  failed  him,  and  lie  began  a  iouniey 
through  Chicago  to  Mackinaw.     On  the  wav,  feeling  himself 
arrested  by  the  approach  of  death,  he  entered  a  little  river  in 
Michigan,  and  was  set  on  shore  that  ho  might  breathe  liis  l-^st 
m  peace.     Like  Francis  Xavier,  whom  he  loved  to  imitate 
he  repeated  in  solitude  all  his  acts  r>f  devotion  of  the  i)re' 
ceding  days.     Then,  having  called  his  companions  and  <nven 
tiiem   absolution,  ho  begged   them  -nco  more  to  lea- e'' him 
alone.     When,  after  a   littli;  while,  tiiey   returned   to  him 
they  found  him  i)assing  gently  away  near  the  strr  :im  that  has 
taken  lus  name.     On  its  Iiigl.est  Dank  tlio  canoe-men  du-  his 
grave.     To  a  city,  a  county,  ami  a  river,  Mlchig,;,  has   "iven 
his  name.  ^ 

In  1000,  at  the  age  of  tNvoity-two,  Robert  Cavelier  do 
la  balle,  of  a  good  family  in  France,  ednriivd  in  the  semi- 
nary of  the  Jesuits,  embarked  for  fortune  and  fame  in  Xew 
iM-ance,  ^nth  no  companions  but  sobrietv,  a  well-re.mlated 
hfe,  and  a  boundless  spirit  of  enterprise^,,  ^xt  iirst  he  made 
his  home  in  Montreal,  where  the  Sul,>ieians  granted  him  a 
manor  that  half  in  mockery  soon  took  the  name  of  La  Chine 
as  if  it  had  been  the  starting-point  for  China.     Connecting  a 


T.'-'m 

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'   :  1    • 

[                            1          '( 

ir 

9 


1  -. 

i   li 

I'i  ' 

'     li 

I 


100       BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    paet  hi. 


cii.  s. 


i; 


i.    /, 


trade  in  furs  with  his  cares  as  a  proprietary,  he  was  led  by  his 
nature  to  wide  exj)lorations. 

Having  heard  through  red  men  reports  of  the  river  Ohio 
and  its  easy  access,  the  liope  rose  within  him  of  reaching  tlie 
rich  country  on  its  banks  under  a  milder  clime,  perhaps  even  of 
finding  tlie  true  way  to  the  south  sea.  In  10(59,  he  therefore 
parted  with  his  estate  on  the  island  of  Montreal,  with  slight 
reservations,  and  eiitered  on  the  career  of  a  discoverer ;  but,  as 
he  has  left  no  record  of  his  achievements,  a  cloud  of  uncer- 
tainty hangs  over  the  two  next  years  of  his  life. 

In  1()72,  the  Coimt  de  Frontenac,  a  veteran  soldier,  of  the 
rank  of  lieutenant-general,  was  ap])ointed  governor  of  l^ew 
Franco.  He  was  brave,  impatient  of  control,  and  suspicious 
of  the  ambition  of  the  Jesuits  to  overrule  his  administration. 
In  the  summer  of  1073,  he  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence  to  ob- 
serve for  himself  the  upper  country,  and  to  hold  a  council 
with  the  Iroquois.  La  Salle  first  appears  in  history  as  his 
messenger,  chosen  to  invite  the  chiefs  of  the  Five  Nations  to  a 
meeting.  Accepting  the  mission,  he  sent  at  once  to  the  gov- 
ernor a  map  of  Lake  Ontario,  which  showed  clearly  that  the 
fittest  site  for  a  fort  and  for  receiving  the  Indians  was  on  the 
bank  of  the  Catara(pu  river  near  +'  outlet  of  the  lake,  where 
Kingston  now  stands. 

The  young  en\  oy's  advice  ^  f  oM'ed  implicitly.  At  tho 
coimcil  with  the  Iri)fjuois,  on  the  wurteenth  of  July,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Canada  for  the  iirst  time  addressed  them  as  his  "  chil- 
dren," and  received  the  name  of  Onondio.  To  secure  peace, 
he  joined  the  language  of  confident  superiority  to  words  of 
conciliatioii.  La  Salle  remained  in  the  service  of  the  governor 
fur  more  than  a  year,  during  ^vhich  time  Fort  Fronteriac  was 
built  of  wood. 

In  November  of  1074,  Frontenac  repoi-ted  to  Colbert,  tlie 
aWc  minister  of  Louis  XIV.,  that  "the  Sieiir  do  la  Salle  was 
about  to  pass  into  France,"  saying :  "  He  is  a  man  of  pai-ts  and 
intelligence,  and  the  most  capable  man  that  I  know  here  for 
all  the  enterprises  and  discoveries  that  there  may  be  a  disposi- 
tion to  confide  to  him.  Ho  has  a  most  perfect  knowledge  of 
the  state  of  this  country,  as  ^-ill  appear  to  you  if  you  give  him 
a  few  moments  of  audience."     Ilepairing  to  Paris,  La  Salle 


■•^'m-it 


1675-1678.    FRANCE  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  161 

presented  his  proposition.  To  Frontenac,  in  April  1675,  Louis 
XIV.  expressed  his  confidence  in  the  advantages  to  be  ex- 
pected from  the  now  post  on  Lake  Ontario ;  and,  on  the  thir- 
teenth of  the  following  May,  he  granted  to  Eobert  Cavelier 
de  la  Salle,  Fort  Frontenac,  with  a  manor  extending  above  and 
below  the  fort  a  mile  and  a  half  in  depth  by  twelve  miles  along 
the  lake  and  river.  On  the  same  day  patents  of  nobility  were 
issued  to  him  as  to  one  who  had  signalized  himself  "  by  des- 
pising danger,"  such  are  the  king's  words,  "in  extending  to 
the  end  of  this  New  World  our  name  and  our  empire." 

The  grant  secured  to  La  Salle  exclusively  the  trade  of  all 
men,  whi.o  or  red,  whom  he  could  allure  to  his  domain;  and 
the  mos'.  convenient  point  to  intercept  the  fur  trade  of  the 
upper  country ;  and  he  was  protected  by  the  power  and  the 
favor  of  the  governor.  The  culture  of  two  years  proved 
the  productiveness  of  liis  land;  his  catflc,  poultry,  and  swine 
gave  large  increase;  he  attracted  Iro(piois  stragglers  to  build 
and  dwell  on  his  estate ;  a  few  French  sought  of  him  shi  '.tor, 
and  Franciscans  renewed  their  zeal  under  his  auspices;  the 
noble  forests  gave  timber  for  the  consti-uction  of  vessels  with 
decks,  two  (.f  twenty-five  tons,  one  of  thirty,  and  one  of  forty, 
on  Lake  Ontario.  The  speedy  acrpiisition  of  wealth  was  as- 
sm-ed  to  him.  J3ut  fortune  tempted  him  Avith  more  brilhant 
visions. 

Two  parties  existod  in  Canada.     Ac  New  England  had 
been  settled  by  towns  having  each  its  orthodox  minister,  so  the 
Jesuits  held  that  Illinois  sliould  be  first  occuiued  by  their 
missions,  and  that  colonies  should  then  be  grouped  around 
each  one  of  them.     On  the  other  hand,  Frontenac  insisted 
that  the  Jesuits  had  too  much  control  over  the  king  in  the 
royal  colony ;  and  he  gave  the  preference  to  other  rehgious 
orders.   So  an  intensely  eager  rivalry  sprung  up  for  the  lead  in 
western  discovery,  commerce,  and  colonization.     JoUiet,  who 
was  of  the  Jesuit  faction,  repairing  to  France,  asked  leave  to  es- 
tabhsh  himself  in  the  country  of  the  Illinois ;  but  his  enemies 
were  on  the  watch ;  his  rightful  claims  to  high  honors  as  the 
discoverer  o^f^the  great  river  were  diminished  or  denied;  and, 
m  April  1077,  his  application  was  nidely  rejected. 

In  the  autumn  of  that  year.  La  Salle,  favored  bv  Count 

VOL.    II.— 11 


ii 


I 


1                 ■' 

m 


-■f\    !'l 


162       BRITISU  AMEPwICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi.;  on.  x. 

Frontenae,  hastened  to  France,  wliere  he  was  again  well  re- 
ceived by  Colbert.  He  dwelt  on  the  magnificence  of  the  five 
great  lakes,  but  likewise  on  the  ditficulties  of  their  navigation 
from  falls  and  rapids.  He  claimed  as  the  work  of  his  early 
career  to  have  descended  the  great  river  of  Ohio  a^  least  to 
its  falls,  promising  an  easier  mode  of  communication  be- 
tween Cariada  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  He  extolled  the 
temperate  region,  beautifid  and  fertile  ;  with  brooks,  rivers, 


fish, 


game ; 


where  cattle  could  thrive  all  winter  unhoused; 


he  exhibited  a  buffalo  robe  as  a  new  kind  of  fur ;  he  spoke  of 
the  natives  as  more  gentle  and  sociable,  and  this  picture  he 
held  up  against  the  poorer  soil  of  Canada  with  its  bloodthirsty 
savages  and  its  six  months  of  snow.  Ue  therefore  demanded 
leave  to  spread  colonies  through  the  happy  region  as  rapidly 
and  as  widely  as  possible  by  the  aid  of  a  revenue  to  be  derived 
from  a  succession  of  trading  forts  connected  Avith  manors,  as 
at  Frontenae. 

The  petition  of  La  Salle  was  seconded  by  Colbert ;  and,  on 
the  twelfth  of  ]\Iay  1078,  the  king,  avowing  that  he  had  noth- 
ing more  at  heart  than  the  discovery  of  the  Avestern  part  of 
New  France  and  of  a  way  even  to  Mexico,  granted  him  a 
monopoly  of  trade  in  buffalo  skins,  and  the  right  to  construct 
forts  and  take  lands  wherever  he  might  think  l)e.st.  These  he 
might  hold  on  the  same  terms  as  Fort  Frontenae ;  but  with 
the  condition  that  he  should  achieve  the  discovery  within  five 
years,  and  that  he  should  not  interfere  with  the  fur  trade  that 
usually  went  to  Montreal. 

Never  did  fortune  scatter  ivuva.  her  urn  richer,  more  nu- 
merous, or  more  varied  promises  than  she  now  lavished  on  La 
Salle.  AVith  all  the  swiftness  of  confident  hope  he  obtained, 
by  loans  from  his  family  and  from  others,  the  large  capital 
which  he  needed.  Already  he  resolved  to  build  two  sea-going 
vessels  on  the  Mississippi,  and  open  commerce  through  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.  Taking  as  his  aid  the  noble-minded  and 
ever-faithful  Henri  de  Tonti,  an  Italian  veteran  chosen  for 
him  by  the  prince  of  Conti,  and  having  engaged  a  large  re- 
cruit of  mechanics  and  mariners,  with  anchors,  and  sails,  and 
cordage  for  rigging  ships,  with  stores  of  merchandise  for  trafiic 
with  the  natives,  La  Salle  embarked  in  July  1078,  and  in  Sep- 


1678-l(i80.    FRANCE  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  1C3 

tember  arrived  in  Qnehec.  before  winter,  "  a  wooden  canoe  " 
of  ten  tons  sailed  witli  a  jxirt  of  his  comi)any  into  Niagara  river  • 
at  Niagara  a  fortified  trading-house  was  established ;  and  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Cayuga  creek  the  work  of  sliip-building 
began.  An  advance  detachment  was  sent  into  the  country  of 
the  Illinois. 

Leaving  Tonti  to  superintend  the  construction  of  the  ship, 
which  went  on  rapidly,  and  setting  a  party  to  build  two  block- 
houses where  Fort  Niagara  now  stands,  La  Salle  went  down 
the  river.  The  Jesuit  party,  which  included  all  Quebec  ex- 
cept the  governor,  were  his  enemies,  and  he  was  detained 
])elow  by  his  restless  creditors  till  after  midsummer.  Not 
until^  the  seventh  of  Augnst  did  he  unfuri  the  sails  of  the 
Griffin,  a  brigantine  of  forty  tons,  to  the  winds  of  Lake  Erie. 
Entering  the  LJetroit  river,  he  debated  planting  on  its  bank, 
and  gave  to  Lake  Saint  Clair  its  name.  lie  narrowly  escaped 
foundering  from  the  fury  of  the  wild  winds  on  Lake  Huron, 
and  sought  a  transient  shelter  at  Mackinaw,  the  seat  of  a  fa- 
mous mission  of  the  Jesuits,  and  the  centre  of  the  fur  trade 
t.f  Lower  Canada.  There  every  trader  hated  the  upstart  noble- 
man as  a  rival,  and  joined  his  relentless  enemies. 

tn  September,  he  cast  anchor  in  Green  Bay.  Here  he 
found  that  his  advance  party  had  collected  a  great  store  of 
furs,  and,  to  meet  the  demands  which  were  pressing  upon  him, 
he  desi)atched  them  in  the  Griffin  to  Niagara.  Then,  com- 
bining with  his  movement  tlie  examination  of  both  sides  of 
Lake  Michigan,  he  sent  forward  a  detachment  along  the 
western  shore,  while  he  Avith  the  main  l)ody  in  bark  canoes 
coasted  the  eastern  shore  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph's, 
where  Alloiiez  had  already  gathered  a  village  of  Miamis! 
Here  he  constructed  the  trading-house  with  palisades  known 
as  the  fort  of  the  Miamis,  sounded  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and 
marked  the  channel  by  buoys  ;  then  leaving  ten  men  to  guard 
the  fort,  lie,  with  Louis  Hennepin  and  two  other  Franciscans, 
with  Tonti  and  about  thirty  followers,  ascended  the  St.  Jo- 
seph's, and,  after  one  short  portage,  entered  a  branch  of  the 
Kankakee,  whieli  connects  with  tlie  IHinois. 

Descending  the  Illinois  slcjwly.  La  Salle  observed,  on  their 
right,  a  little  farther  onward,  a  yellow  sandstone  "  Eock,"  which. 


>  I    -'I 


IGi       BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    part  in. ;  on.  x. 

with  its  flat  summit,  lifts  its  massive  fomi  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  feet  or  more  aljuve  tlie  nver  tliat  iiows  at  its  hase, 
in  tlie  centre  of  a  lovely  country  of  verdant  i)rairies,  bordered 
by  distant  sloiies,  richly  tufted  with  o;>k,  black-walnut,  and 
others  of  the  nublest  trees  of  the  American  forest.  Here,  near 
the  present  town  of  Utica,''*'  was  the  grand  village  of  the  IIH- 
nois.  They  were  absent,  according  to  their  custom  of  passhig 
the  winter  in  the  chase,  lie  chose  the  spot  for  the  centre  of 
a  French  settlement,  and  resolved  in  his  mind  to  crown  the 
"huge  cliff"  with  a  fortress. 

Continuing  his  downward  voyage,  he  kept  on  the  lookout 
till,  below  Lake  Peoria,  he  selected  the  site  for  the  foi-tiiied 
ship-yard  where  his  men  were  to  build  a  brig  strong  enough  to 
carry  them  all  down  the  great  river  and  to  navigate  the  Clulf 
of  Mexico.  But  already  he  foreboded  that  the  Griffin  would 
never  again  be  seen,  and  that  his  wealth  with  which  it  was 
freighted  was  hopelessly  lost ;  doubt  began  to  seize  hold  of  his 
companions  till  he  was  deserted  by  a  part  of  them,  including 
his  best  carpenters.  In  the  anguish  of  his  soul  he  named  the 
new  fort  Crevecccur,  or  Heartbreak. 

With  no  resources  but  in  himself,  fifteen  hundred  miles 
from  the  nearest  French  settlement,  imixjverished,  surrounded 
by  wild  and  uncertain  nations,  he  inspired  the  few  who  stayed 
by  him  with  resolution  to  saw  forest-trees  into  plank  and  lay 
the  keel  for  the  vessel  in  which  they  were  to  make  their  voyage. 
He  despatched  Louis  Hennei)in  to  explore  the  j\Iississippi  above 
the  Illinois  river ;  he  questioned  the  Illinois  and  their  southern 
captives,  such  of  them  as  he  could  find,  on  its  downward  course. 
Then,  as  recruits,  sails,  and  cordage  were  needed,  in  March, 
^vith  a  nmsket  and  a  pouch  of  powder  and  shot,  a  blanket,  and 
skins  for  making  moccasons,  he,  with  three  com])anions,  set  oft' 
for  Fort  Frontenac,  travelling  on  foot  as  far  as  Detroit. 

During  the  absence  of  La  Salle,  Michael  Accault,  accom- 
panied by  Hennepin,  who  bore  the  calmnet,  and  Du  Gay, 
followed  the  Illinois  to  its  junction  with  the  Mississippi,  then 
ascended  it  to  the  great  fails  which,  from  the  chosen  ])atron 
saint  of  the  expedition,  were  named  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony. 
On  a  tree  near  the  cataract,  the  Franciscan  engraved  .he  cross 

*  Francis  rarkiiiaii',-  La  SaHu,  jiage  22:),  olcvcntli  cJitiou. 


tent. 


IG80-1681.    FRANCE  AND  THE  MFSSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  165 

and  tlio  arms  of  Franco ;  and,  after  a  summer's  rambles,  dlver- 
sitlfd  hy  a  sliort  cai)tivity  of  tlie  party  am()n<r  the  Sioux,  from 
wliieh  they  wore  rencued  by  tlie  bravo  and  able  French  ofHcer, 
Daniel  J)uhitli,  the  party  returned,  by  way  of  the  Wisconsin 
and  Fox  rivers,  to  Green  Bay. 

With  a  few  men,  Toiiti  executed  an  order  sent  him  by  his 
chief  to  examine  "  the  Ptock,"  near  the  great  village  of  the  Ill- 
inois, and  make  it  a  strong  place.  The  ship-builders  at  Ileart- 
Itreak  seized  the  opi)ortunity  of  hU  absence  to  steal  whatever 
was  of  any  value  at  Fort  Heartbreak  and  take  shelter  among 
the  savages.  In  Septcml)er  1<]80,  a  large  war  party  of  the  Iro- 
(piois  made  a  merciless  and  infuriated  attack  upon  the  Illinois, 
partly  to  destroy  them  as  in  war,  partly  to  rob  them  of  their 
store  of  furs.  It  was  on  this  occasion  tliat  the  great  village  of 
the  Illinois  was  laid  waste.  Of  Tonti  and  his  few  companions, 
their  rights  to  protection  as  Frenchmen  were  respected,  but 
tJicy  were  compellcl  to  retire  to  Green  Bay. 

At  JNiagara,  where  La  Salle  arrived  on  Easter  Monday,  he 
learned  the  certainty  of  the  loss  of  the  GrifKii,  and,  further, 
that  goods  of  great  price,  shipped  to  hun  from  France,  had 
been  wrecked  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  His  worn-out 
companions  could  travel  no  farther  ;  alone  he  pushed  forward 
to  Fort  Frontonac.  But  the  farther  he  proceeded  the  darker 
grew  liis  fortunes.  All  Canada,  even  the  government,  except 
Frontenae,  seemed  to  have  conspired  against  him.  His  own 
agents  betrayed  him ;  one  of  them  despoiled  him  and  escaped 
to  New  Netherland;  his  creditors 'laid  hold  of  his  proi)erty; 
of  twenty  men  who  Iiad  come  over  in  his  service  froin  Europe, 
he  could  count  but  u\)(m  four,  and  every  Canadian  whom  ho 
had  employed  seenied  to  bo  detached  fi-om  his  interest. 

Still  adhering  to  the  idea  of  descending  the  Great  Ptiver  in 
a  sea-going  vessel.  La  Salle,  in  August  1080,  embarked  on 
Lake  Erie  at  the  head  of  an  advance  party.  Pursuing  his  old 
course  by  way  of  the  Kankakee,  on  the  first  of  December  he 
reached  the  "  Rock,"  which  overhung  a  scene  of  carnage  and 
desolation  imecpialled  in  atrocity  by  any  Indian  onslaiight  of 
which  we  have  an  authentic  record.  Of  the  Illinois  village 
nt.tliing  was  to  be  seen  but  burnt  stakes  which  marked  its  e'x- 
tt'Ht.     The  heads  of   tiie  dead  remained  stuck   on  poles   for 


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166       BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    pahtiii.;  en.  x. 

the  crows  to  strike  at  with  their  talons;  before  the  eyes  of  La 
Sallo  and  his  attendants,  the  Ijodies  of  the  slain  M'ero  left  to  he 
rent  in  pieces  hy  the  wolves ;  and  not  only  had  the  ocaifolds  on 
which  the  recent  dead  lay  in  their  burial  costnu'e  been  thrown 
down,  but  an  uTiheard-of  sacrilt'^ious  wrath  ha'l  burst  o|)en  the 
pits  for  the  tinal  interment  of  past  ^generations,  and  scattered 
their  bones  over  the  plain ;  while  the  wolve.*  and  crows,  keej)- 
ing  up  their  revels  for  more  than  two  months,  increased  the 
hoiTor  of  the  scene  by  their  hovvlings  and  their  cries.  Proofs 
were  abundant  that  Illinois  eai)tives  had  been  put  to  death  by 
their  conipierors  in  a  thousand  modes  of  skilful  torture  ;  but 
there  was  no  ai)pearance  that  any  Fi'cnchman  had  been  injured. 

On  the  second  of  Decend)er,  La  Salle,  well  pi-ovided  with 
arms  and  articles  for  presents,  embai'ked  at  about  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  in  a  canoe  with  three  European  com})an- 
ions  and  one  savage.  The  trees  seen  on  the  way  down  the 
river  bore  the  portraits  vi  the  chiefs  of  the  late  Iro(piois  in- 
vaders, and  the  number  of  soldiers  which  each  one  had  led ; 
they  amounted  in  all  to  five  hundred  and  eighty-two.  The 
killed  and  the  captives  were  chiefly  women  and  children,  and 
their  number,  according  to  the  record,  was  more  than  six  hun- 
dred. At  Heartbreak  the  vessel,  which  the  deserters  had  left- 
was  found  on  the  stocks  little  injured,  and  bearing  the  in- 
scription, "  We  all  are  savages." 

On  the  fifth,  the  party  came  upon  the  Great  River.  All 
was  quiet.  The  whole  of  La  Salle's  advances  had  been  fi-uit- 
lessly  spent;  he  conmianded  no  longer  credit  enough  to  re- 
new the  expedition  in  the  proportions  in  which  it  had  been 
begun.  Magnanimous,  and  not  knowing  how  to  be  disheart- 
ened, he  resolved  to  carry  out  his  enterprise  in  bark  canoes. 

Winter  was  at  hand,  and  the  nearest  place  of  refuge  was 
his  own  fort  on  the  St.  Joseph's.  Near  the  lUinois  village,  the 
collecting  of  maize  and  provisions,  and  hiding  them  for  the 
next  year's  use,  employed  more  than  two  weeks.  The  great 
comet  of  IGSO  shone  over  him  in  its  fullest  lustre  before  he 
renewed  his  upward  journey. 

On  the  sixih  of  January  1G81,  La  Salle's  little  party,  which 
on  their  way  had  sought  in  vain  for  Tonti,  arrived  at  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Illinois  with  the  Kankakee.     The  rest  of  the 


1G81-10S3.    FRANCE  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 


107 


journey  tu  the  furt  on  the  St.  JuKoph'H  river  was  nuulu  through 
;i  continuous  Hnow-.st(^nn  of  nineteen  days. 

Ilia  |)rincii)al  work  (hiring  tlie  winter  was  a  fonnal  recon- 
cilement of  th(!  Mianiis  with  the  Irofjnois.  The  followini;  sum- 
mer and  autumn  were  taken  up  in  a  journey  to  Fort  Frontenae, 
wliei-c  ho  did  what  ho  could  to  api)ease  his  creditoi's  and  to 
provide  for  his  linal  voyage.  On  the  return,  he  formed  a  junc- 
tion with  Tonti  at  Mackinaw,  and  made  his  last  purehaises  <»f 
stores.  On  the  twenty-first  of  December,  Tonti  and  Mcmbre, 
tlic  Franciscan,  set  forward  la  advance  l)y  way  of  the  Chicago; 
La  Salle  somi  followed  wiili  the  rest  of  tlie  party.  Tlu;  riv- 
ers were  frozen,  and  they  were  obh'ged  to  drag  their  canoes  on 
sledges,  which  Ttmti  liad  constnicted  for  the  purpose;  nor  did 
they  find  any  open  water  until  they  had  passed  Lake  Peoria. 

On  the  sixth  of  February  1GS2,  tliey  airived  at  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi,  where,  on  account  of  the  running  ice,  they 
took  rest.  There,  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  1\  bniary,  all  be- 
ing assend)led,  twenty-two  Frenclunen,  Henri  de  Tonti  among 
them,  Zenobe  Mendu'c,  a  Franciscan  missionary,  eighteen  Al- 
gonkins,  chiefly  of  New  England,  and  ten  Indian  women  as 
servants— in  all  at  least  fifty — embarked  on  the  Mississippi. 

They  soon  ])assed  the  Missouri,  which  La  Salle  regarded  as 
the  mightier  branch  of  the  Great  River,  with  deej)er  and  still 
more  abundant  waters  and  more  Indian  nations  dwelling  in  its 
marvellously  fertile  valley.  As  ho  floated  down  the  tmited 
stream,  he  seemed  to  hear  in  the  distance  "  the  sound  of  tho 
advancing  nmltitude "  that  was  to  till  the  im[)erial  wilderness 
with  civilized  states.  On  tlie  thirteenth  of  March,  at  the  vil- 
lage of  the  Akansas  and  in  the  presence  of  the  tribe,  posses- 
sion was  taken  of  the  country  for  Louis  the  Great,  with  every 
civil  and  religious  ceremony ;  and  a  carefully  authenticated  rec- 
ord Avas  made  of  the  act. 

The  mouths  of  the  Mississippi  were  reached  on  the  sixth  of 
April.  On  the  seventh.  La  Salle  reconnoitred  the  south-west 
passage  all  the  way  to  the  sea,  and  iixed  the  latitude  as  near  as 
he  could  at  about  twenty-seven  degrees ;  but,  from  the  frailty  of 
his  canoe,  he  was  not  able  to  make  a  proper  examination  of  the 
entrance  from  the  sea.  Both  La  Salle  and  Tonti  described  the 
two  chaimels  as  "  beautiful,  broad,  and  deep." 


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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

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108       BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     part  hi.  ;  on.  x. 

In  that  age,  no  mode  of  promptly  ascertaining  the  longi- 
tude was  known.     On  the  eighth  a  dry  apot  was  found  for  per- 
forming solemnly  the  act  of  taking  possession.     A  column  and 
a  cross  were  prepared.     The  column  bore  the  anns  of  France, 
with  the  inscription,  "  Louis,  the  great  king  of  France  and  of 
i^avarre,  reigns,  this  ninth  of  April  1682."    Every  one  remain- 
ing under  arras,  they  chanted  the  Te  Deum.  and  God  save  the 
King ;  amid  salvos  of  musketry  and  cries  of  "  Long  live  the 
king,"  La  Salle  erected  the  column,  and  pronounced  that  by 
authority  of  the  royal  connnission  he  took  possession  of  the 
country  cf  the  Mississij^pi,  with  all  its  tributaries,  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio  on  the  east,  from  its  head-spring  on  the 
west  even  beyond  its  valley  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  of  Palms. 
It  was  added  that,  as  his  majesty  is  the  oldest  son  of  the  church, 
he  would  acquire  no  country  for  the  crown  without  striving  to 
establish  in  it  the  Clu-istian  religion ;  and  then  the  cross  was 
raided,  while  the  whole  company  sang  the  same  hynm  that  a  few 
yeai-s  before  had  been  chanted  at  the  falls  of  St.  Mary :  ''•  The 
bannei-s  of  Heaven's  King  advance :  Vexilla  Eegis  prodeunt." 
La  Salle  immediately  began  the  ascent  of  the  river,  form- 
ing the  plan  to  return  home  and  seek  to  establish  a  direct 
connection  between  France  and  Louisiana.     But  his  health  was 
undermined.     Below  the  Red  river  he  was  delayed  forty  days 
by  a  dangerous  malady.    Not  till  the  close  of  July  could  he 
slowly  renew  his  journey.     Bringing  his  affairs  in  the  West 
into  order,  he  selected  the  Rock  which  he  named  St.  Louis 
for  the  central  fort  of  his  possessions;  he  encouraged  and 
brought  tlie  Illinois  back  to  their  ancient  village,  and  joined 
to  them  the  Mianiis ;  and,  in  a  grossly  exaggerated  account, 
rated  the  Indians  whom  he  had  gathered  near  his  fort  at 
twenty  thousand.     Leaving  Tonti  in  command  with  full  in- 
structions, he  reached  Quebec  early  in  ISTovember,  and  Ro- 
ehelle,  in   France,  the  twenty-third  of  December  1G83.     De 
la  Barre,  the  successor  of  Frontenac,  had  from  Quebec  falsely 
reported  him  as  diso])edient,  and  planning  an  independent 
government  in  tlie  West ;  ejecting  his  agents  from  Fort  Fron- 
tenac, he  sent  an  officer  to  supersede  Tonti  in  Fort  St.  Louis. 

La  Salle  arrived  in  France  at  a  moment  auspicious  for  his 
purposes.     He  had  been  waited  for  to  give  to  the  coiui;  an 


1684.  FRANCE  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  iQg 

ample  account  of  the  terrestrial  paradise  of  America  Avliere 
the  lang  was  to  call  into  being  a  magnificent  empire.  '  Spain 
had  msisred  that  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  was  a  closed  sea  of  its 
own.  Louis  XIY.  denied  the  assumption,  ordered  his  ships 
of  war  to  disregard  it,  and  wished  a  convenient  post  somewhere 
on  the  taissippi  river  from  which  a  descent  into  the  sea 
could  readdy  he  made.     Spain  and  France  were  then  at  war. 

Colbert,  whose  genius  had  awakened  a  national  spirit  in 
behalf  of  Fren.h  mdustrj,  was  no  more ;  but  Seignelay,  his  son 
mmister  tor  mantunc  affairs,  listened  confidingly  to  the  mes 

ZTwoZ  '' ''  ^'""^  ''^'''^' '"''  "'^""^"^  ""  "  '^^'  "^'^'^^'^  ^^  the 
He  was  received  by  the  king;  his  merits  as  an  explorer 
were  recognised.     The  Abbe  Bernou  described  La  sX  to 
Seignelay  as  "irreproachable  in  his  morals,  regular  in  his  con- 
duet  a  strict  disciphnanan,  well  informed,  of  good  judgment 
wa  chful,  untmng,  sober,  and  intrepid;  he  had  knowledge  of 
arclutecture  as  well  as  of  agriculture;  could  speak  four  or  five 
anguageso    the  savages;  knew  their  ways,  and  how  to  rule 
them  by  address  and  eloquence.     On  his  excursions  he  fared 
no  better  than  the  humblest  of  his  people,  and  took  more  pains 
Ind'hZr/^  rf  \*^^-^5  let  him  but  have  protection, 
and  he  will  found  colonies  moiv  considerable  than  all  which 
the  French  have  as  yet  established." 

La  Salle  could  now  make  his  own  proposition  to  the  govern- 
ment, ami  he  suited  it  to  the  state  of  the  times.     His  plan  wa= 
to  place  himself  with  absolute  power  in  command  of  an  expedi^ 
tion  for  the  purpose  of  founding  on  the  Mississippi,  at  or  not 
many  miles  from  the  site  of  the  present  Kew  Orleans,  a  post 
^•om  wluch  the  French  might  readily  enter  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
As  l^rance^  and  Spain  were  then  at  war,  he  further  offered  to 
ascend  to  his  fort  St.  Louis,  to  collect  there  thousands  of  Lulians 
whom  he  professed  to  know  how  to  govern,  and,  with  them  and 
litty  West  Lidian  buccaneers,  and  French  trooi)s  to  be  com 
mitted  to  his  command,  to  take  possession  of  the  silver  mines 
of  New  Biscay,  of  which  nothing  was  kno.vn,  but  which  were 

olot  r  ^^""^!f  ""^'  ''''^^-    Tli«  expedition,  except  at  the 

outset,  was  to  provide  its  own  means  of  i)ermanent  success 
More  was  accorded  to  him  than  he  had  asked.     But  Beau- 


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If    I 


170       BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    partiii.;  on.  s. 

jeu,  tlio  commander  of  the  squadron  whicli  was  to  transport 
his  party,  was  inflamed  by  envy,  and  entreated  of  Seignelay 
the  command  of  the  exjiedition  for  himself.  Seignelay,  in  re- 
ply, enjoined  on  him  to  jiromote  tlie  enterprise  by  every  means 
that  depended  on  him,  adding:  "Be  not  chagrined  about 
the  command;  otherwise,  nothing  will  more  certainly  ship- 
wreck the  enterprise."  But  Beaujeu  breathed  nothing  but 
bitter,  inveterate  hostility,  at  a  time  when  it  could  breed  noth- 
ing but  ev-il.  In  the  naiTowness  of  his  mind,  he  continued 
to  revile  La  Salle  as  without  experience ;  without  rank ;  the 
comrade  of  wretched  school-boys ;  without  the  manners  of  a 
gentleman ;  of  a  crazed  intellect ;  and  he  persistently  entreated 
his  own  friends  to  persuade  the  friends  of  La  Salle  that  he  was 
not  the  man  they  took  him  for.  His  fixed  purpose  was  the 
overthrow  of  the  man  whom  he  had  not  been  able  to  supersede. 

Henri  Joutel,  a  soldier  and  a  very  upright  man,  who,  hke 
La  Salle,  was  a  native  of  Rouen,  volunteered  to  serve  under  his 
command ;  he  was  destined  to  become  the  historian  of  the  ex- 
pedition. As  the  squadron  sailed.  La  Salle  wrote  to  his  mother : 
"  I  passionately  hope  that  the  result  of  the  voyage  may  con- 
tribute as  much  to  your  repose  and  comfort  as  I  desire." 

On  the  iirst  of  August  1G84,  the  squadron  finally  sailed, 
and,  on  tlie  fifteenth  of  that  month,  a  truce  for  twenty  years 
was  established  at  llatisbon  between  France  and  Spain.  Noth- 
ing remained  for  La  Salle  but  to  carry  out  his  own  original 
plan  of  founding  a  colony  on  the  Mississij^pi ;  but  the  prepa- 
rations had  the  double  character  of  a  military  force,  and  a 
peaceful  company  for  the  planting  of  Louisiana. 

Four  vessels  bore  two  hundred  and  eighty  persons  to  take 
possession  of  the  valley.  Of  these,  one  hundred  were  soldiera ; 
about  thirty  were  volunteers,  two  of  whom  were  nephews  to 
La  SaUe.  Of  ecclesiastics,  there  were  three  Franciscans  and 
three  of  St.  Sulpice,  one  of  them  being  brother  to  La  Salle. 
There  were,  moreover,  mechanics  of  various  skill ;  and  the 
presence  of  young  women  proved  tlie  design  of  permiment 
colonization.  But  tlie  mechanics  were  poor  workmen,  ill  versed 
in  their  art ;  the  soldiers  were  without  discipline,  without  ex- 
perience, and  witliout  proper  officers ;  the  volunteers  were  rest- 
less with  indefinite  exj)ectations. 


1684-1685.    FRANCE  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 


171 


The  little  squadron,  borne  along  by  the  trade-winds,  pro- 
ceeded to  San  Domingo  with  fair  weather,  under  the  enchant- 
ing influence  of  the  brilUant  skies  and  the  tropical  ocean 
sparkling  with  drops  of  fire ;  but  throughout  the  passage  there 
was  an  imrelenting  war  between  Beaujeu  and  La  Salle.  Beau- 
jeu  wilfully  passed  beyond  the  port  in  San  Domingo  at  which 
he  sliould  have  halted,  and,  by  hurrying  to  Petit  Goave,  which 
was  reached  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  September,  the  ketch 
laden  with  food  and  tools  and  other  stores  for  La  Salle's  ex- 
pedition, fell  a  prey  to  the  Spanish.     The  loss  was  irreparable. 

On  stepping  on  shore,  La  Salle  fell  desperately  ill  with  fever. 
"  If  he  dies,  I  shall  pursue  a  course  different  from  that  which 
he  has  marked  out,"  wrote  Beaujeu  to  Seignelay. 

jS!"o  sooner  had  La  Salle  thrown  off  the  fever  than,  gath- 
ering such  information  as  he  could  from  buccaneers  who  had 
been  in  the  GuK  of  Mexico,  he  desired  to  proceed  to  his  task. 
As  he  knew  not  the  longitude  of  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi, 
the  voyage  was  an  attempt  at  their  discovery  from  the  sea. 

Instead  of  remaining  with  1 1  aujeu  in  the  Joly,  La  Salle 
went  on  board  the  smaller  Aimable,  and  they  both  embarked  on 
the  twenty-eighth  of  November.     The  sepai-ation  wrought  new 
confusion.     Besides,  Beaujeu  had,  of  his  own  -will,  brought  the 
expedition  to  the  westernmost  side  of  San  Domingo  ;  and,  in- 
stead of  turning  the  capes  of  Florida,  which  would  have  led  di- 
rectly to  th3  Mississippi,  it  was  necessary  to  coast  along  southern 
Cuba  till  Cape  Antonio  was  doubled.    From  that  point  a  com'se 
nearly  north-west  brought  La  Salle,  on  the  six-th  of  January,  in 
sight  of  the  shore  near  Galveston.     In  those  days  all  beheved 
the  gulf  stream  flowed  with  great  swiftness  to  the  straits  of 
Bahama,  and  under  the  fear  of  being  borne  too  far  to  the  east, 
La  SaUe  sailed  still  farther  to  the  west,  until  he  was  between 
Matagorda  island  and  Corjuis  Christi  bay.     For  seventeen  days 
he  and  tlie  naval  commander  had  been  separated.     On  the  nine- 
teenth, they  formed  a  junction,  criminating  each  ether  for  the 
time  that  had  been  lost.     La  Salle  w^as  now  sure  that  they  were 
to  the  west  of  the  principal  mouth  of  the  river  for  which  he 
was  searching,  and  was  desirous  to  retrace  his  steps,  but  could 
come  to  no  understanding  witli  Beaujeu. 

A  month  of  indecision  passed  away,  and  La  Salle,  having 


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172       BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi.  ;  en.  x. 


no  liope  of  the  co-operation  of  Beanjcu  in  discovering  the 
time  nioutli  of  tlie  Mississippi,  resolved  to  land  his  party  on  the 
M'uters  whicli  ho  believed  connected  with  that  river.  The 
sliailow  entrance  into  the  harbor  was  carefully  sui-veyed  and 
marked  out ;  but  when,  on  the  twentieth  of  Febniar}^,  the  store- 
ship  Ainiable,  under  its  own  captain,  attempted  to  enter  the 
harbor,  it  struck  the  bar  and  was  hopelessly  wrecked. 

La  Salle,  calming  his  grief  at  the  suddua  ruin  of  his  bound- 
less hopes,  borrowed  boats  from  the  fleet  to  save,  at  least,  some 
present  supplies.  But  with  night  came  a  gale  of  wind,  and 
the  vessel  was  dashed  in  pieces.  The  ttorcs  lay  scattered  on 
the  sea ;  little  could  Ije  saved.  Savages  came  down  to  pilfer, 
and  murdered  two  of  the  volunteers. 

The  iieet  set  sail,  and  there  remained  on  the  beach  of  Mata- 
gorda a  desponding  company  of  about  two  hundred  and  thirty, 
huddled  together  in  a  fort  constnicted  of  the  fragments  of  their 
shipwrecked  vessel,  having  no  resource  but  in  the  constancy 
and  elastic  genius  of  La  Salle. 

Ascending  the  Lavacca,  a  small  stream  at  the  west  of  the 
bay.  La  Salle  selected  a  site  on  the  open  groimd  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  fortified  post.  The  gentle  slope,  which  he  named 
St.  Louis,  showed,  toward  the  west  and  south-west  a  boundless 
landscape,  verdant  with  luxuriant  grasses  and  dotted  with 
groves  of  forest-trees;  south  and  east  was  the  bay  of  Mata- 
gorda, skirted  with  prairies.  The  waters,  Avhich  abounded  in 
fish,  attracted  flocks  of  wild  fowl ;  the  fields  were  aUve  with 
deer  and  bisons  and  wild  turkeys,  and  the  deadly  rattlesnake, 
bright  inhabitant  of  the  meadows.  Thcire,  u^der  the  suns  of 
June,  with  timber  felled  in  an  inland  grove  .d  dragged  for  a 
league  over  the  prairie-grass,  the  colonists  prepared  to  build  a 
shelter.  La  Salle  being  the  architect  and  himself  marking  the 
beams  and  tenons  and  m0xi;ises.  With  parts  of  the  wreck 
brought  up  in  canoes,  a  second  house  was  framed,  and  of  each 
the  roof  was  covered  mth  buffalo  skins.  Thus  France  took  pos- 
session of  Texas ;  her  arms  were  carved  on  its  trees ;  and  by  no 
treaty  or  public  document  or  map  did  she  give  up  lipv  right  to 
the  province  mitil  she  resigned  the  whole  of  Louisiana  to  Spain. 

Excursions  into  the  vicinity  of  the  fort  discovered  noth- 
ing but  the  productiveness  of  the  country.     In  December,  La 


1685-1GS7.    FRANCE  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.  173 

Salle  went  to  seek  tlie  Mississippi  with  tlie  aid  of  canoes ;  and, 
after  an  absence  of  abont  four  months  and  the  loss  of  tweh'o 
or  thirteen  men,  in  March  1680,  he  returned  in  rags,  having 
failed  to  find  "•  the  fatal  river."  In  April,  he  plunged  into  the 
wilderness,  with  twenty  companions ;  in  the  northern  part  of 
Tcxa^s  he  found  the  iiumerous  nation  of  the  Cenis,  all  hostile  to 
the  Spaniards.  lie  only  succeeded  in  obtaining  live  horses  and 
supplies  of  maize  and  beans ;  but  learned  nothing  of  mines. 

On  his  return,  he  was  told  of  the  wreck  of  the  bark  which 
Louis  XIV.  had  given  him,  and  which  he  had  left  with  the 
colony :  he  heard  it  unmoved.  Heaven  and  man  seemed  Ids 
enemies.  Having  lost  his  hopes  of  fortune  and  of  fame ;  with 
his  colony  diminished  to  about  forty,  among  whom  discontent 
gave  birth  to  i>lans  >f  crime ;  with  no  Europeans  nearer  than 
the  river  Panuco,  no  French  nearer  than  Illinois — he,  with  the 
energy  of  an  indomitable  will,  resolved  to  travel  on  foot  tu  his 
coumrymen  at  the  north,  and  iind  means  of  relieving  his  col- 
ony in  Texas. 

Leaving  twenty  men  at  Fort  St.  Louis,  in  January  1687, 
with  sixteen  mjn,  he  departed  for  Canada.  Lading  their  bag- 
gage on  the  wild  horses  from  the  Cenis,  which  found  their 
pasture  everywhere  in  the  prairies ;  in  shoes  made  of  green 
bulfalo  hides;  following  the  track  of  the  buffalo,  and  using 
skins  as  their  only  shelter  against  rain ;  winning  favor  with 
the  savages  by  the  confiding  courage  of  their  leader — they  as- 
cended the  streams  toward  the  first  ridge  of  highlands,  walking 
through  prairies  and  groves,  among  deer  and  buifaloes — now 
fording  clear  rivulets,  now  building  a  bridge  by  felling  a  giant 
tree  across  a  stream — till  they  reached  a  branch  of  Tnnity 
river.  In  the  little  company  of  wanderers,  two  men,  Duhaut 
and  L'Archevoque,  had  embarked  their  capital  in  the  enter- 
prise. Of  these,  Duhaut  had  long  shown  a  spirit  of  nnitiny 
and  ungovernable  hatred.  Inviting  Moranget  to  take  chai-ge 
of  the  fruits  of  a  buffalo  hunt,  they  quarrelled  with  him  and 
murdered  him.  Wondering  at  the  delay  of  his  nephew's  re- 
turn, La  Salle,  on  the  twentieth  of  March,  went  to  seek  him. 
At  the  brink  of  the  river  he  observed  eagles  hovering  as  if 


over  carrion;  and  Ive  fired  an  alarm 


gun. 


AVamed  by  the 


sound,  Duhaut  and  L' Archeveque  crossed  the  river ;  the  former 


'J         .M 


' ; 


f  ■ 


I :; 


i.  I 


t: 


174       BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.     part  hi.;  on.  x. 

skulked  in  tho  prairie  grass ;  of  tlio  latter,  La  Salle  afikod : 
"Where  is  my  nephew?"  At  tlie  moment  of  tho  answer, 
Duliaut  fired;   and,  witliont  uttering  a  word,  La  Salle  fell 


dead.      "  There  you   are, 


grand  bashaw ! 


there  you  are  1 " 


shouted  one  of  the  conspirators  as  they  despoiled  his  remains 
which  were  left  on  the  prairie,  naked  and  without  burial,  to  be 
devoured  by  wild  boasts.  For  force  of  will  and  daring  concep- 
tions ;  for  various  knowledge  and  (juick  adaptation  to  untried 
circu?iistances  ;  for  energy  of  purpose  and  unfaltering  courage — 
this  resolute  adventurer  had  no  superior  among  his  countrymen. 
He  won  the  affection  of  the  governor  of  Canada,  the  esteem 
of  Colbert,  the  confidence  of  Seignelay,  the  favor  of  Louis 
XIY.  After  beginning  the  occupation  of  Upper  Canada,  he 
perfected  the  discovery  of  the  Mississippi  from  the  falls  of 
St.  Anthony  to  its  mouth ;  and  he  is  remen\bered  as  the  father 
of  colonization  in  the  great  central  valley  of  the  West.* 

But  avarice  and  passion  were  not  calmed  by  the  blood  of 
La  Salle.  Duhaut  and  another  of  the  assassins,  grasping  at 
an  unequal  share  in  the  spoils,  were  themselves  murdered, 
while  their  reckless  associates  joined  a  band  of  savages.  Jou- 
tel,  with  tho  brother  and  f.urviving  nephew  of  La  Salle,  and 
others,  in  all  but  seven,  obtained  a  guide  to  the  Arkansas  ;  and, 
fording  rivulets,  crossing  ravines,  by  rafts  or  boats  of  buffalo 
hides  making  a  feiTy  over  rivers,  not  meeting  the  cheering 
custom  of  the  calumet  till  they  reached  the  country  above 
the  Red  river,  leaving  a  faithful  cotnpanion  in  a  wilderness 
grave,  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  July  1G87,  so  many  of  them 
as  survived  came  upon  a  great  tributary  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  beheld  on  an  island  a  large  cross.  Never  did  Christian 
gaze  on  that  emblem  with  heartier  joy.  Near  it  stood  a  log 
hut,  tenanted  by  two  Frenchmen.  Tlie  ever-to-be-remembered 
Henri  de  Tonti  had  descended  the  river,  and,  full  of  grief  at 
not  finding  La  Salle,  had  established  a  post  on  the  Arkansas. 

*  Decouvcrtes  ct  l^tablisscmcnls  des  Franijais  dans  I'ouost  ct  dans  lu  sud  dc 
I'Ameriquc  Septentrionale  (1014-1754).  Par  Ticrrc  Margry.  Tlicse  throe  vol- 
umes increase  what  was  known  of  Jollict  and  exhaust  the  documents  on  La  Salle. 


1084-1088.      ItlVALRY   OF  FRANCE  AND  BRITAIN. 


176 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

THE   RIVALRY   OF   FR.VNCE   AND  GREAT  BRriAIN   IN   AMERICA. 

Bad  as  was  the  condition  of  a£Pairs  of  Franco  in  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  it  was  hardly  better  on  the  l)anks  of  the  St. 
Lawrence.  To  secure  its  inland  connections,  Franc3  needed 
the  alliance  of  the  Five  Nations;  but  they  were  irresistibly 
attracted  to  New  Itork,  because  they  found  there  the  best 
market  for  their  furs  and  the  cheapest  for  their  supplies. 

To  remonstrances  from  De  la  Barre,  the  Senecas  answered : 
"  We  have  not  wandered  from  our  paths,  but  when  the  gover- 
nor of  Canada  threatens  us  with  war,  shall  we  give  way  ?  Our 
beaver-hunters  arc  brave  men,  and  tlie  beaver  hunt  must  be 
free."  Meanwhile,  Dc  la  l^arre  advanced  with  a  large  force 
to  the  fort  wliich  stood  near  the  outlet  of  the  present  Eideau 
canal.  But  the  bad  air  of  August  on  the  marshy  borders  of 
Lake  Ontario  disabled  his  army ;  and,  after  crossing  the  lake, 
and  disembarking  his  wasted  troops  i?'  the  land  of  the  Onon- 
dagas,  he  was  compelled  to  solicit  peace. 

The  deputies  of  the  tribes,  repairing  to  the  presence  of  De 
la  Ban-e,  exulted  in  his  humiliation.  "  It  is  well  for  you,"  said 
the  eloquent  Ilaaskouaun,  as  he  rose  from  smoking  the  calu- 
met, "  that  you  have  left  under  ground  the  hatchet  which  has 
so  often  been  dyed  in  the  blood  of  the  French.  Our  childi-en 
and  old  men  would  have  carried  their  bows  and  arrows  into 
the  heart  of  your  camp,  if  our  braves  had  not  kept  them  back. 
Our  warriora  have  not  beaver  enough  to  pay  for  the  arms  we 
have  taken  from  the  French ;  and  our  old  men  are  not  afraid 
of  war.  We  have  the  right  to  guide  the  English  to  our  lakes. 
We  are  bom  free.  We  depend  neither  on  the  English  nor  the 
French."     Dismayed  by  the  energy  of  the  Seneca  chief,  the 


thU 


i  ,. 


.;    (  -1 


I  I 


176      BlllTiSir  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     partiii.;  cu.  «. 

governor  of  Ciiiiadii  accepted  a  treaty  which  loft  his  allies  at 
the  mercy  of  their  eneniief*. 

Fresli  troops  arrived  from  Fmnco ;  and  Do  hi  Barro  was 
eupersedod  by  the  marqnis  of  Denonville.  The  advice  of  the 
new  governor,  on  his  urnval  in  1085,  was  that  New  York 
might  ho  acquired  hy  purchase,  saying  tliat  .James  XL,  heing 
dependent  for  inoiiuy  on  Louis  XIV.,  miglit  very  well  sell  hinx 
the  whole  i)rovinee.  In  a  treaty  of  ^N'oNember  lOSO,  the  Eng- 
lish king  agreed  that  neither  of  the  two  sovereigns  should  jia- 
sist  the  Indian  tribes  with  whom  the  other  might  bo  at  war. 

'•The  welfiro  of  my  service,"  such  were  the  instructions  of 
Louis  XIV.  to  his  new  governor,*  "  requires  that  the  muuber  of 
the  Iruquuis  should  bo  diminished  as  nmch  as  possible.  They 
are  strong  and  robust,  and  can  bo  made  useful  as  galley-slaves. 
Do  wLat  you  can  to  take  a  largo  mimber  of  thom  prisoners  of 
war,  and  ship  them  for  Fnmco."  In  the  course  of  1087,  forty- 
one  of  the  warriors  of  the  Pivo  Nations  f  wore  sent  across  the 
ocean  to  be  chained  to  the  oar  in  the  galleys  of  Mai-seilles. 

An  incursion  into  the  country  of  the  Senecas,  under  De- 
nonville, followed.     The  savages  retired  into  remoter  forests ; 
the  domain  was  overrun  without  resistance ;  but,  as  the  French 
army  withdrew,  the  wilderness  remained  to  its  old  inhabitants. 
The  Senecas  in  their  turn  made  a  descent  upon  their  ruthless 
enemy;  and  the  Ouondagas  threatened  war.     "The  French 
governor  has  stolen  om-  sachems ;  ho  has  broken,"  said  they, 
''  the  covenant  of  peace."    And  Ilaaskouaun,  in  1088,  advances 
with  live  hundred  warriors  to  dictate  the  terms  of  peace.     "  I 
have  always  loved  the  French,"  said  the  proud  chieftain  to  the 
foes  whom  ho  scorned.     "  Our  warriors  proposed  to  come  and 
burn  your  forts,  your  houses,  your  granges,  and  your  com ;  to 
weaken  you  by  famine,  and  then  to  overwhelm  you.     I  am 
come  to  tell  Onondio  he  can  escape  this  misery  if  within  four 
days  he  -will  yield  to  the  tenns  which  Corlear  has  proposed." 
Twelve  hundred  Iroquois  were  already  on  Lake  St.  Francis ; 
in  two  days  they  could  reach  Montreal.     The  haughty  con- 
descension of  the  Seneca  chief  was  accepted,  and  the  retm-n  of 
the  Iroquois  chiefs  conceded. 

*  Louis  XIV.,  31  July,  1684.     N.  Y.  Doc.  Col.  Hist.,  ix.,  283. 
f  Shea's  Charlovuix,  iii.,  275,  and  note,  27iJ. 


ICfaO. 


RIVALRY  OF  FRANCi;:  AND  IJRITAIN. 


177 


A  year  ijassoH,  and  tho  coiulitious  of  tlio  treaty  had  not 
been  fultilled,  and,  on  tho  twenty-tifth  of  August  1C89,  tho 
Iroquois,  tiftcen  liuiidrod  in  number,  reached  tlio  isle  of  Mon- 
treal at  La  Chine  at  break  of  day.  Finding  all  asleep,  they  set 
lire  to  the  houses,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  killed  two  hun- 
dred i)eoi)le  with  most  skilfully  devised  forms  of  cruelty ;  they 
never  were  masters  o'i  the  city,  but  they  roamed  umnolested 
over  the  island  until  the  middle  of  October,  and,  when  they 
retired,  took  with  them  one  hundred  and  twenty  i).lsoner8.  In 
tho  moment  of  consternation  Denonville,  almost  as  his  last  act 
as  governor,  ordered  Fort  Frontenac  on  Lake  Ontario  to  be 
evacuated  and  razed.  From  Three  Ilivers  to  Mackinaw  there 
remained  hardly  one  French  post.  Before  the  danger  was  at 
its  height,  Denonville  wrote :  ''  God  alone  could  have  saved 
Canada  this  year." 

Fnmco  and  Great  Britain  had  for  nearly  a  century  been 
rivals  in  North  America.     The  English  revolution  of  1(588 
impressed  on  that  rivalry  a  new  form.     The  kings  of  France 
liad  thrown  off  the  control  of  the  states  general  of  the  king- 
dom, and  Louis  XIY.  stood  in  Europe  as  the  impersonation  of 
al).«oIute  power;  and  the  other  sovereigns  on  the  continent, 
even  to  the  pettiest  ruling  prince,  took  him  for  their  niotlel. 
In  England,  the  ])arliament  had  not  only  preserved  its  ancient 
rights,  but  made  itself  the  master  of  the  government.     Hence- 
forward the  rivalry  between  England  and  Franco  assumed  the 
character  of  a  rivalry  between  unlimited  monarchy  and  a  power 
whieli  was  the  representative,  though  the  imperfect  represen- 
tative, of  tho  nation.     England,  the  representative  of  a  mon- 
archy not  so  much  limited  as  controlled  by  her  pai-liament, 
became  the  forerunner  of  liberty  for  all  civilized  states.     She 
was  the  star  of  hope  for  the  European  world.     Moreover,  her 
legislative  branch  was  divided  into  two   se])ajv>to  chambei-s, 
which  were  each  a  check  on  the  other.     Thus,  England  gave 
to  the  world  the  perpetual  possession  of  the  two  fundamental 
and  necessary  principles  of  a  strong  and  free  government :  tlie 
control  of  the  executive  power  by  a  national  legislature,  and 
the  division  of  that  legislature  into  two  branches,  as  a  check 
and  a  sujjport  to  each  other,  as  well  as  to  the  executive  power. 
The  aristocratic  revolution  of  England  was  the  signal  for  a 

VOL.    11. — 12 


I     19 


,     i 


li 


178      lUilTISlI  AMi:i:lCA  VnOM  urn  to  1748.     i-ahthi.;  ch.  XI. 

war  with  Krimco.  Louis  XIV.  rofuHcd  to  iicciuioHco  in  tlio  rev- 
olution, and  tooiv  up  arms  at  onco  i'm  tin;  aHHortioii  of  the  indo- 
fcasihlu  riglit  of  tli(*  Stuarts  to  tlio  tlirono  of  (iroat  ISrituin 
and  for  the  anjuiHition  of  territory  from  his  neighbors.  Kug- 
land  had  the  glorious  ollley  of  asserting  the  right  of  a  nation  t:> 
reform  its  government. 

I.et  it  he  Icit  to  Kiiropean  historians  to  preserve  so  t.inch  of 
th(^  (k'eds  in  Murope  of  tliis  lirst  war  of  revolution  as  merit  to 
bo  remendiered.  The  narrative  of  its  events  in  Ameriea  are 
hut  a  |)ieture  of  sorrows  followed  by  no  result.  The  idea  of 
weakening  an  adversary  hy  eneouraging  its  colonies  to  assert 
independeiiee  did  not  as  yet  exist;  European  statesiuansliip  as- 
sumed that  tlicyniu.it  hiive  a  masier ;  and  in  Amenea,  lOngland, 
by  sharing  her  own  liberties '.vith  her  colonies,  hound  them  to 
liei*self  hy  the  wannest  alfeetion. 

The  French  in  (^mada  and  its  dependencies  were  so  infe- 
rior in  number  to  the  English  in  tlieir  twelve  continuous  colo- 
nies along  the  sea,  that  iliey  could  make  forays  and  ravage  but 
n(»t  eoncpiests;  and  would  have  easily  been  over])owered  but 
for  the  dilKculty  of  reaching  them. 

To  i>rotect  Acadia,  the  Jesuits  Vincent  and  James  Bigot 
collected  a  village  of  Abenakis  on  the  Penobscot;  and  a  nour- 
ishing town  now  marks  the  spot  where  the  I>aron  de  Saint- 
Castin,  a  veteran  officer  f)f  tlie  regiment  of  ('arigiian,  established 
a  trading  fort.  Would  France,  it  was  said,  strengthen  its  jiost 
on  the  Penobscot,  occu]>y  the  islands  that  connnand  the  (lulf 
of  St.  Lawrence,  and  send  su])plies  to  Newfoundland,  she  would 
be  sole  mistress  of  the  cod  fisheries.  The  French  missionaries, 
swaying  the  mind  of  the  Abenakis,  gave  liope  of  them  as  allies. 
In  the  east,  at  Cocheco,  thirteen  years  before,  an  unsuspect- 
ing party  of  Tt'dians  had  l)een  sliipped  for  Boston,  to  be  sold 
into  foreign  slavery.  The  emissaries  of  Castin  roused  the 
tribe  of  Penacook  to  revenge.  On  the  evening  of  the  twenty- 
seventli  of  June,  two  squaws  repaired  to  th(i  house  of  Richard 
Waldron,  and  the  octogenarian  magistrate,  who  was  a  trader, 
bade  them  lodge  on  the  floor.  At  night  they  unbar  the  gates 
for  their  companions.  "What  iiow?  what  now?"  shouted  tl 
brave  old  man ;  and,  seizing  his  sword,  he  defended  himseb 
till  he  fell  stunned  by  a  blow  from  a  hatchet.     They  then 


1089-l(i9(».      FUVALFSY  OF   FRANCE    AND   BUITAIN. 


179 


placed  hirri  in  a  diair  on  a  taltio  in  hirt  own  hull:  "  Tudge 
IiidiatiH  again  1 "  thm  thvy  mocked  him  ;  and,  making  Hport  of 
thi-ir  duhts  to  him,  they  (Irow  gashes  acrosH  his  hreaii,  each  ono 
Haying,  "  ThuM  1  ci-ohs  out  my  accojmt ! "  The  Indiann,  liaving 
l.unied  \\\h  house  and  others  near  it,  and  killed  twenty-three 
perHoUH,  returned  to  the  wilderneKH  with  twenty-nine  captives. 
In  AngUHt,  the  In('ian  women  and  chihh'on,  at  the  Pc- 
nohscot  misHion  of  f'anihas,  uplift  in  prayer  liandH  purified  by 
confeHHion;  in  their  little  chajn'l,  the  misKionary  and  IiIh  noo- 
I)hytes  have  estahlisiied  a  i)erpetu;il  rosary,  while  a  hund.vd 
\varri(»rH,  in  a  tleet  of  bark  cunoeR,  .•!t(^al  out  of  the  Pen-  'ucot, 
and  i)a(Idlo  toward  Penuuiuid.  Tlionuw  Gyles  and  his  sons,  in 
th.i  sunny  noontide,  are  making  hay ;  a  volley  whistles  by  them ; 
a  short  encounter  ends  in  their  d^^feat.  "  Task  no  favor,"  says 
the  vounded  father,  '•  1 'it  leave  o  pray  with  my  children." 
Palo  with  the  loss  of  blood,  he  coin<nend8  his  children  to  Ood, 
then  bids  them  farewell  for  this  wc.rld,  in  the  hope  of  seeing 
them  in  a  better;  and  falls  by  the  aatchet.  After  a  defence 
of  two  days,  the  stockade  at  Pemaquid  capitulates;  and  the 
warriors  return  to  Penobscot  with  prisoners.  Other  inroads 
were  jnado  by  the  Penobscot  ami  St.  John  Indians,  so  that  the 
settlements  cast  of  Falmouth  were  deserted. 

Soon  after  tlio  outbreak  of  the  war,  Count  Frontenac  was 
appointed  once  more  governor  of  Canada.  His  instructions  of 
the  seventh  of  Juno  1080  charged  him  to  recover  Hudson's 
bay ;  to  protect  Awidia ;  and,  by  a  descent  from  Canada,  to 
assist  a  fleet  from  Franco  in  making  conquest  of  Nov/  Vork. 
Of  that  province  Do  ('allieres  wfis,  in  advance,  appointed  gov- 
ernor ;  the  English  Catholics  were  to  be  pennitted  to  remain  ; 
other  inhabitants  to  be  sent  into  Pennsylvania  or  New  Eng- 
land. On  the  twelfth  of  October,  Frontenac  an-ived  at  Quebec 
just  in  time  to  witness  the  complete  desolation  to  wliich  New 
France  had  been  reduced  by  the  incapacity  of  Denonville. 
Drawing  to  his  aid  his  own  experience,  he  used  every  effort  to 
win  the  Five  Nations  to  neutrality  or  to  friendship.  To  re- 
cover esteem  in  their  eyes,  and  to  secure  to  Durantaye,  the 
commander  at  Mackinaw,  the  means  of  treating  with  the  Hu- 
rons  and  tlie  Ottawas,  it  was  resolved  by  Frontenac  to  make  a 
triple  descent  into  the  Enghsh  provinces. 


h 


I'iM 


1  ^mi 


180      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1T48.     part  iii. ;  cii.  xi. 


Ill  1G90,  a  party  of  one  hundred  and  ten,  composed  of 
Frencli  and  of  Christian  Iroquois — having  De  Maiitet  and 
Sainte  Ilelene  as  leaders,  and  Ibr'r^^lle  as  a  vohmteer — for 
two-and-twenty  days  travelled  over  the  snows  to  Schenectady. 
The  village  had  given  itself  to  slumber  ;  the  invaders  entered 
silently  through  unguarded  gates  just  before  midnight,  raised 
the  war-whoop,  and  set  the  dwellings  t)n  lire.  Of  the  inha])i- 
tants,  some,  half-clad,  fled  through  the  snows  to  Albany ;  sixty 
were  massacred,  of  whom  seventeen  -were  children  and  ten 
were  Africans. 

A  party  from  Three  Rivers,  led  by  Hertel  de  Eouville, 
consisting  of  iifty-two  persons,  of  whom  three  were  his  sons 
and  two  his  nej^hews,  surprised  the  settlement  at  Salmon 
Falls,  on  the  Piscataqua,  and,  after  a  bloody  engagement, 
>urned  houses,  barns,  and  cattle  in  the  stalls,  and  took  fifty- 
fom*  prisoners,  chietly  women  and  children.  The  prisoners 
were  laden  by  the  victors  with  s))oils  from  their  own  homes. 

Eeturning  from  this  expedition,  Ilertel  met  a  war-party 
from  Quebec,  and,  with  them  and  a  re-enforcement  from  Cas- 
tin,  made  a  successful  attack  on  the  settlement  In  Casco  bay. 

Meantime,  danger  taught  the  colonies  the  need  of  union. 
In  March  1000,  the  idea  of  a  colonial  "  congress,"  familiar 
from  the  times  when  wars  with  the  Susquehannahs  brought 
agents  of  Virginia  and  ]\Iarylaiid  to  New  York,  arose  at  Al- 
bany. On  the  eighteenth  of  that  month,  letters  were  des- 
patched from  the  general  court  o  ]\Iassaclmsctts  "  to  the  sev- 
eral governors  of  the  neighboring  colonies,  desiring  them  to 
ai)point  commissioners  to  meet  at  Rhode  Island  on  the  last 
Monday  in  April  next,  there  to  advise  and  conclude  on  suita- 
ble methods  in  assisting  each  other  for  the  safety  of  the  wlujle 
land,  and  that  the  go\^eraor  of  New  York  be  desired  to  signify 
the  same  to  Maryland,  and  parts  adjacent."  Leisler  heartily 
favoied  the  design  ;  the  place  of  meeting  was  changed  to  New- 
York  ;  and  there,  on  the  iirst  day  of  i\[ay,  commissionei's  from 
Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  York  came 
together  by  their  own  independent  acts.  In  that  assembly  it 
vv^as  resolved  to  attempt  the  coiupiest  of  Canada  by  sending  an 
army  over  Lake  Champlain  against  ]\[ontreal,  while  Massacliu- 
eetta  should  attack  (Quebec  with  a  tieet. 


1690-1697.      RIVALRY  OF  FRAXCE  AND  BRITAIN. 


181 


Before  the  end  of  May,  Sir  AVilliiim  Phips  sailed  to  Port 
Eoyal,  now  Annapolis,  which  readily  surrendered ;  but,  in  the 
following  year,  it  was  retaken  by  a  French  ship.  In  August, 
an  Indian  announced  at  Montreal  that  an  army  of  Iroquois  and 
English  was  constnicting  canoes  on  Lake  George ;  immediately 
Frontenac  placed  the  hatchet  in  the  hands  of  his  allies,  and, 
with  the  tomahawk  in  liis  own  gras]-*,  old  as  he  was,  chanted 
the  Vv-ar-song  and  danced  the  war-dance.  On  the  twenty-ninth, 
it  was  said  that  an  army  had  reached  Lake  Champlain ;  but  the 
projected  attack  by  land  was  defeated  by  divisions  and  mutual 
criminations  of  Leisler  and  Winthrop,  of  Connecticut. 

Frontenac  was  preparing  to  return  to  Quel)ec,  when,  on  the 
tenth  of  October,  an  Abenaki,  hurrying  through  tlu;  woods  in 
twelve  days  from  Piscatarpia,  gave  warning  of  a  fleet  which 
was  on  the  way  from  Boston.  Massachusetts  had  sent  forth 
under  Phips  a  fleet  of  thirty-four  sail,  maimed  by  two  thousand 
of  its  citizens,  who,  without  pilots,  were  sounding  their  way  up 
the  St.  Lawrence. 

In  the  night  before  the  fifteontli  of  October,  Frontenac 
reached  Quebec,  and  the  fortifications  of  the  city  liad  been 
made  tenable,  when,  on  the  sixteenth,  soon  after  daybreak, 
the  fleet  from   Boston   cast   anchor   near  Beauport,   in    the 
stream.     It  arrived  too  late.     The  herald  fi-om  the  ship  of  the 
admiral,  demanding  a  surren'"'er  of  the  place,  was  dismissed 
with  scofl's.     "What  could  avail  the  courage  of  the  citizen  sol- 
diers who  effected  a  landing  at  Beauport  ?     Before  them  was  a 
fortified  town  defended  by  a  garrison  far  more  numerous  than 
the  assailants,  and  the  concerted  plan  against  Montreal  had 
failed.    On  the  twi'uty-fiivst,  the  Xew  England  men  re-embarked 
for  Boston,     At  Quebec,  the  church  of  Our  Lady  of  Victory 
was  l)uilt  in  the  lower  town  in  connuemoration  of  the  event ;  and 
in  France  a  medal  was  struck  in  honor  of  the  successes  of  Louis 
XIY.  in  the  Xew  World.     Tlie  Xew  England  ships,  on  their 
way  home,  were  scattered  by  stomis :  one,  bearing  sixty  men, 
was  wrt'cked  on  Anticosti.     Sir  William  Phii)s  reached  l^oston 
in  Xovend)er.     TIio  treasury  was  empty ;  to  meet  the  cost  of 
the  expedition,  in  December,  bills  of  credit,  in  notes  from  five 
sliilHngs  to  five  pounds,  were  issued,  to  "  be  in  value  equal  to 
money,  and  accepted  in  all  public  payments."     Distrust  im- 


f   ; 


IJ'ii 


182      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     part  in.;  en.  xi. 

peded  their  circulation,  and  yet  new  emissions  followed ;  so 
the  bills  were  made  in  all  payments  a  legal  tender. 

Eepulsed  from  Canada,  tlie  exhausted  colonies  for  the  rest 
of  the  war  attempted  little  more  than  the  defence  of  their 
frontiers.     Their  borders  were  full  of  terror  and  sorrow,  of 
captivity  and  death ;  but  no  designs  of  conquest  were  formed. 
Schuyler,  in  1G91,  made  an  irniption  into  the  French  settle- 
ments on  the  Sorel,  gained  successes  in  a  skimiish,  and  effected 
a  safe  retreat.     In  Januaiy  1092,  a  party  of  French  and  In- 
dians, coming  on  snow-shoes  from  the  east,  burst  upon  the 
town  of  York,  offering  its  inhabitants  no  choice  but  captivity 
or  death.     The  British  fort  which  was  rebuilt  at  Pemaquid 
was,  at  least,  an  assertion  of  supremacy  over  the  neighboring 
region.     In  England  the  conquest  of  Canada  was  resolved 
upon.    In  1093,  the  British  squadron  designed  for  the  expedi- 
tion, after  a  repulse  at  Martinique,  arrived  at  Boston ;  but  it 
came  freighted  with  yellow  fever  of  so  malignant  a  type  that 
a  very  large  part  of  the  mariners  and  soldici-s  on  board  were 
its  victims.     In  August,  hostilities  in  Maine  were  suspended 
by  a  treaty  of  peace  ^vith  the  Abenakis ;  but  in  less  than  a 
year,  solely  through  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits,  they  were 
again  in  the  field,  and  from  the  village  at  Oyster  river,  in 
New  Hampshire,  ninety-four  persons  were  killed  or  carried 
away.     The  chiefs  of  the  Micmacs  presented  to  Frontenac 
the  scalps  of  English  killed  on  the  Piscataqua.     Nor  did  the 
thought  occur  that  such  inroads  were  atrocious.     The  Jesuit 
histoi-ian  of  France   relates  Avith  pride,  that  the^  had  their 
origin  in  the  counsels  and  influence  of  the  missionaries  Thnry 
and  Bigot ;  extols  the  success  of  the  foray ;  and  passes  a  eulogy 
on  the  deeds  of  Taxus,  the  bravest  of  the  Abenakis. 

Once,  indeed,  a  mother  achieved  a  startling  revenge.  In 
March  1097,  the  Indian  prowlers  raised  their  shouts  near 
fr.o  house  of  Hannah  Dr.stin,  of  Haverhill,  seven  days  after 
her  confinement.  Her  husband  rode  home  from  the  field,  l)ut 
too  late  for  her  rescue.  He  must  fly,  if  he  would  save  even 
one  of  his  seven  children,  who  had  hurried  before  him  into 
the  forest.  But,  from  the  cowering  flock,  lunv  could  a  father 
make  a  choice  ?  With  gun  in  his  hand,  he  now  repels  the 
assault,  now  cheers  on  the  little  ones,  as  thev  nistle  tlirouirh 


1692-1697.     RIVALRY  OF  FRANCE   AND  BRITAIN. 


188 


the  dry  leaves,  till  all  reach  a  shelter.  The  Indians  burned  his 
home,  dashed  his  new-bom  child  against  a  tree;  and,  after 
Avcary  marches,  Hannah  Dustin  and  her  nurse,  with  a  boy  from 
Worcester,  find  themselves  on  an  island  in  the  Merrimack,  just 
above  Concord,  in  a  wigwam  occupied  by  two  Indian  families. 
The  mother  planned  escape.  "  "Where  would  you  strike,  to  kill 
instantly  ? "  asked  the  boy,  Samuel  Leonardson,  of  his  master, 
and  the  Indian  told  him  where  and  how  to  scalp.  At  night, 
while  the  household  slumbers,  the  two  women  and  the  boy, 
each  with  a  tomahawk,  strike  fleetly,  and  with  wise  division 
of  labor ;  and,  of  the  twelve  sleepers,  ten  lie  dead ;  of  one 
squaw  the  wound  was  not  mortal ;  one  child  was  spared  from 
design.  Taking  the  gun  and  tomahawk  of  the  murderer  of  her 
mfant,  and  a  bag  heaped  full  with  the  scalps  of  the  slain,  the 
three,  in  a  bark  canoe,  descended  the  Merrinuick  to  the  English 
settlements,  filling  the  land  with  wonder  at  their  deed. 

In  the  late  summer  of  1G90,  the  fort  of  Pemaquid  was 
taken  by  Iberville  and  Castin.  The  frontier  of  French  do- 
minion was  extended  into  the  heart  of  Maine. 

After  the  hope  of  conquering  Canada  was  abandoned  by 
the  English,  Frciutenac  had  little  strife  but  with  th"  Five  Nar 
tions,  whom  he  altenifiely  endeavored  to  win,  or  to  terrify  into 
an  alHance,  In  1  ebruary  1G92,  three  hundred  French,  with 
Indian  confederates,  were  sent  against  hunting-parties  of  the 
Senecas  in  Upper  Canada.  In  Janiuiry  and  February  of  the 
following  year,  a  larger  party  entered  the  country  of  the  Mo- 
hawks, bent  on  their  extermination.  The  first  castle  and  the 
second  fell  easily,  for  the  war-chiefs  were  absent ;  at  the  third, 
forty,  who  were  dancing  a  war-dance,  gave  battle,  and  victory 
cost  the  invaders  thirty  men.  The  governor  of  Montreal  had 
ordered  no  quarter  to  be  given,  unless  to  women  and  children  ; 
the  savage  confederates  insisted  on  showing  mercy.  This  the 
French  historian  censures  "as  inexcusal)le;"  for  Schuyler,  of 
Albany,  collecting  two  hundred  men,  and  |.arsuing  the  party 
as  it  retired,  succeeded  in  liberating  many  of  the  captives. 

Nor  did  the  Five  Nations  continue  their  control  over  west- 
ern commerce.  In  1G05,  after  many  vacillations,  the  prudence 
of  the  memorable  La  Motte  Cadillac,  wlio  had  l)een  appointed 
governor  at  Mackinaw,  confirmed  the  friendship    li"  the  neigh- 


;f( 


i^;' 


s^ 

,  1 

;     p.  n 

^'■'. 

1 

1              'i      :! 

v-jt' 

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m 


184      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    pabt  hi. 


en.  XI. 


boring  tribes;  and  a  party  of  Ottawas,  Fottawatomies,  and 
Ojibwas  surprised  and  routed  a  band  of  Iroquois,  returning 
witli  scalps  and  piles  of  beaver. 

But  the  Indians  of  the  "West  would  not  rally  under  the 
banner  of  France ;  and,  in  1G9G,  the  French  of  Canada,  aided 
only  by  their  immediate  allies,  made  their  last  inroad  into 
western  New  York.      Frontenac,  then  seventy-four  years  of 
age,  conducted  the  anny.     On  the  twenty-ninth  of  July,  from 
the  fort  which  bore  his  name  and  which  he  had  restored,  they 
passed  over  to  Oswego,  at  night  reached  the  falls  three  leagues 
above  its  mouth,  and,  by  the  light  of  bark  torches,  dragged  the 
canoes  and  boats  across  the  portage.     As  they  advanced  they 
found  fourteen  hundred  and  thirty-four  reeds,  tied  in  two  bun- 
dles to  a  tree,  amiouncing  that  that  number  of  Avarriors  defied 
them.    As  they  approached  the  great  village  of  the  Onondagas, 
the  nation  set  fire  to  it  and  retired.     Early  in  August,  the  army 
encamped  near  the  Salt  Springs  at  Salina,  while  a  party  was  sent 
to  ravage  the  coimtry  of  the  Oneidas,  kill  all  who  should  offer 
resistance,  and  take  six  chiefs  as  hostages.     Meantime,  an  aged 
Onondaga,  who  had  refused  to  fly,  was  abandoned  to  the  alHes 
of  the  French.     During  all  the  tortures  that  more  than  four 
hundred  savages  could  inflict,  the  decrepit  old  man  scoffed  at 
them  as  the  slaves  of  those  whom  he  despised.     On  receiving 
mortal  wounds,  his  last  words  were  :  "  You  should  have  taken 
more  time,  so  as  to  learn  how  to  meet  death  manfully  !     I  die 
contented  ;  for  I  have  no  cause  for  self-reproach." 

Lea\ang  the  Onondagas  and  Oneidas  to  suffer  from  famine, 
yet  to  retain  their  spirit  and  recover  their  lands,  Frontenac, 
>  ith  his  forces,  went  back  to  Montreal. 

During  the  war,  England,  by  a  decree,  had,  without  a  block- 
ade, closed  all  the  ports  of  France  against  every  foreign  ship. 
The  English  exchequer  had  been  recruited  by  means  of  a  great 
change  in  the  internal  and  the  financial  policy  of  England. 
In  1094,  it  accepted  from  individuals  a  loan  of  one  and  a  half 
million  pounds  sterling,  paying  for  it  eight  per  cent  per  annum, 
and  incori)orating  the  subscril)ers  to  the  loan  as  the  Bank  of 
England,  with  the  privilege  of  issuing  notes  for  circulation. 

France  had  sustained  itself  well  in  the  war,  gaining  \acto- 
ries  in  the  field  and  in  diplomacy,  and  ui  Europe  rounding  off 


1C97-1711.      RIVALRY  OF  FRANCE  AND  BRITAIN. 


185 


its  territoiy  by  the  acquisition  of  Strassbur<,r,  on  iliG  Rliine. 
But  in  September  1097,  at  the  peace  which  was  made  at  Rys- 
wick  between  France  and  England,  Louis  XIY.  recognised 
tlie  revolutionary  sovereign  of  England  as  its  king;  but  in 
America  he  retained  all  of  which  he  was  in  possession  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war.  The  boundary  lines  were  to  be  estab- 
lished^ by  commissioners.  England  claimed  to  the  St.  Croix, 
and  France  to  the  Kennebec ;  and,  had  peace  continued,  the 
St.  George  would  have  been  adopted  as  a  compromise. 

The  boundary  between  New  France  and  New  York  was 
diilicult  of  adjustment.  In  the  negotiations  for  the  restoration 
of  prisoners,  J.ord  Bellomont,  the  governor  of  JSTew  York, 
vainly  sought  to  obtain  an  acknowledgment  that  the  Iroquois 
were  subject  to  England.  They  themselves  asserted  their  in- 
dei^endence.  Their  religious  sympathies  inclined  them  to  the 
French,  but  commercial  advantages  brought  them  into  connec- 
tion with  the  English.  As  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits  gave 
to  France  its  only  power  over  the  Five  Nations,  the  legislature 
of  Xew  York,  in  1700,  made  a  law  for  hanging  every  popish 
priest  that  should  come  voluntarily  into  the  province,  of  which 
the  land  of  the  Iroquois  was  hold  to  be  a  part. 

After  many  collisions  and  acts  of  hostility  between  the  Iro- 
quois and  the  allies  of  tiie  French,  especially  the  Ottawas; 
after  many  ineffectual  attempts,  on  the  part  "of  Lord  Bello- 
mont, to  constitute  himself  the  arbiter  of  peace,  and  thus  to 
ol)tain  an  acknowledged  ascendency— the  four  upper  nations, 
in  the  summer  of  1700,  sent  envoys  to  Montreal  "to  weep  for 
the  French  who  had  died  in  the  war."  After  rapid  negotia- 
tions, peace  was  ratified  between  the  Iroquois  on  the  one  side, 
and  France  and  her  Indian  allies  on  the  other.  The  Hat,  chief 
of  the  Ilurons  from  Mackinaw,  said :  "  I  lay  down  the  axe  at  my 
father's  feet ; "  and  the  deputies  of  the  four  tribes  of  Ottawas 
echoed  his  words.  The  envoy  of  the  Abenakis  said:  " I  have 
no  hatchet  but  that  of  my  father,  and,  since  my  father  has 
buried  it,  now  I  have  none ; "  the  Christian  Iroquois  assented. 
To  a  written  treaty  each  nation  placed  its  symbol :  tlie  Senecas 
and  Onondagas  drew  a  spider;  the  Cayugas,  a  calumet;  the 
Oneidas,  a  forked  stick ;  the  ^Mohawks,  a  bear ;  the  Ilurons,  a 


beaver;  the  Abenak 


is,  a  deer ;  and  the  Ottawas,  a  hare.     It 


y 


i  i  n 


ii 


fi- 


ll 


i.  Jl. 


18G      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.     part  m.;  on.  sr, 

was  further  declared  that  war  should  cease  between  the  French 
allies  and  the  Sioux;  that  peace  shoidd  rcacli  beyond  the  Mis- 
sissippi. As  to  limits  in  western  Kew  York,  Do  Callieres  ad- 
vised the  French  minister  to  assert  French  jurisdiction  over  the 
land  of  the  Iroquois,  or  at  least  to  establish  its  neutrality. 

In  the  month  of  Jime  1701,  De  la  Motte  Cadillac,  with  a 
Jesuit  missionary  and  one  hundred  Frenclunen,  was  sent  to 
take  possession  of  Detroit.  This  is  the  oldest  pennanent  settle- 
ment in  Michigan.  Near  the  fort,  i)lace  was  made  for  the  rem- 
nant of  the  Ilurons ;  and  higher  up  the  river  in  Upper  Canada 
rose  a  settlement  of  the  Ottawas,  their  insej)aj'able  companions. 
The  occuj^ation  oi"  Illinois  by  the  French  continued  without 
interniption.  Joutel  found  a  garrison  at  Fort  St.  Louis  in 
1G87;  in  1G89,  La  Ilontan  beai-s  testimony  that  'it  was  still 
there;  in  1G9G,  a  public  document  j^roves  its  existence,  and 
the  wish  of  Louis  XI Y.  for  its  welfare ;  and  when,  in  ITOO, 
Tonti  again  descended  the  Mississippi,  he  was  attended  l)y 
twenty  Canadians  from  lUinois.  But  in  what  year  the  mission 
established  by  Marquette  removed  its  seat,  is  not  known. 

The  permanent  settlement  at  Yineennes  belongs  to  the  year 
1702.*     It  is  the  oldest  village  in  Indiana. 

There  is  no  mention  of  the  time  when  the  Jesuit  missionary 
Mermet  assisted  the  commandant  Juclierau,  from  Canada,  in 
collecting  Indians  and  Canadians,  and  founding  the  first  French 
jjost  on  the  Oliio,  or,  as  the  lower  part  of  that  river  was  then 
called,  the  "Wabash.  A  contagious  disease  invaded  the  mixed 
poj)ulation  and  broke  up  the  settlement. 

The  missionaries  encountered  with  dismay  the  horror  of  life 
in  the  vast,  uninliabited  regions  where  in  u,  journey  of  twelve 
days  not  a  soul  was  met.  In  1711,  the  Jesuit  Marest  writes : 
"  There  was  no  village,  no  bridge,  no  ferry,  no  boat,  no  house,  no 
beaten  path ;  we  travelled  over  j^rairies,  intersected  by  rivulets 
and  rivers ;  through  forests  and  thickets  filled  with  briers  and 
thorns ;  througli  niarsiies,  'where  we  plunged  sometimes  to  tlie 
girdle.  At  night,  repose  Avas  sought  on  the  grass,  or  on  leaves, 
exposed  to  wind  and  rain ;  by  the  side  of  some  rivulet,  of  which 
a  draught  might  quench  thirst.  A  meal  was  prepared  from 
such  game  as  was  killed  on  the  way,  or  by  roasting  ears  of  corn." 
*  luLabitauts  of  Post  Vincenncs  to  General  Gage,  18  Sept,  1772.     MS. 


'I    I 


1698-1699.      RIVALRY  OF  FRANCE   AND  BRITAIN. 


187 


At  the  mission  at  Kaskaskia,  at  early  dawn,  the  pupils  came 
to  church,  dressed  neatly  and  modestly,  each  in  a  lai-g(3  deer- 
skin, or  in  a  rohe  stitched  together  from  smaller  peltry.  After 
receiving  lessons,  they  chanted  canticles ;  mass  was  then  said 
in  presence  of  all  the  Christians  in  the  place,  the  French  and 
the  converts — the  women  on  one  side,  the  men  on  the  other. 
From  prayer  and  instruction  the  mis&ionaries  proceeded  to 
visit  the  sick ;  and  their  skill  as  physicians  did  more  than  all 
the  rest  to  vnn  coniidence.  In  the  afternoon,  the  catechism 
was  taught  in  presence  of  the  young  and  the  old,  and  every 
one,  without  distinction  of  rank  or  age,  answered  the  questions 
of  the  missionary.  At  evening,  all  would  assemble  at  the 
chapel  for  instruction,  prayer,  and  to  chant  the  hymns  of  the 
church.  On  Sundays  and  festivals,  even  after  vespers,  a  hom- 
ily was  pronounced;  at  the  close  of  the  day,  parties  would 
meet  in  the  cabins  to  recite  the  chaplet  in  alternate  choirs,  and 
sing  psalms  into  the  night.  Their  psalms  were  often  hciuihes, 
with  the  words  set  to  familiar  tunes.  Saturday  and  Sunday 
were  the  days  for  confession  and  communion,  and  every  con- 
vert confessed  once  in  a  fortnight.  Marriages  of  the  French 
with  the  daughters  of  the  Illinois  were  sometimes  solemnized 
according  to  the  rites  of  t;  ..  Catholic  church.  The  mission 
was  a  cantonment  of  Europeans  among  the  native  proprietors 
of  the  prairies. 

The  honor  of  colonizing  the  south-west  of  our  repubhc  be- 
longs to  the  illustrious  Canadiim,  Lemoine  Iberville.  The  most 
skilful  naval  officer  in  the  service  of  France,  the  idol  of  his 
countrymen,  after  the  peace  of  Eyswick  he  sought  and  obtained 
a  conunission  for  establishing  direct  intercourse  between  France 
and  the  Mississippi. 

On  the  seventeenth  day  of  October  1G08,  two  frigates  and 
two  smaller  vessels,  with  a  company  of  marines  and  aboiit  two 
hundred  settlei-s,  including  a  few  women  and  children — most 
of  the  men  being  disljanded  Canadian  soldiei-s — embarked  for 
the  Mississippi.  Ilapjjier  than  La  Salle,  the  leader  of  the  en- 
terprise won  confidence  everywhere :  the  governor  of  San  Do- 
mingo gave  him  a  welcome,  and  bore  a  willing  testimony  to 
liis  genius  and  his  good  judgment.  A  larger  ship-of-wai*  from 
station  ioined  the  exoedition.  which,  in  Jai 


expe( 


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IGOO, 


.'  v| 


IV 


I    iil 


I 


,|.  i 


;    • 


i 


ii 


1^ 

il 

'f 

;     '(,. 

>'• 

18S      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    paut  hi.;  cit.  xi. 


m^ 


(I ''' 


i  I 


cauglit  a  glinipso  of  tho  continent,  and  ancliored  before  the 
island  St.  Rose.  On  the  oi^posite  shore,  the  fort  of  Pensacola 
had  just  been  established  by  three  hundred  Si)aniards  from 
Vera  Cruz.  This  prior  occupation  is  tlie  reason  why,  after- 
ward, Peiisacola  remained  a  part  of  Florida,  and  the  dividing 
line  between  that  })rovinc(.!  and  Louisiana  was  drawn  between 
the  bays  of  Pensacola  and  j\[t)bile.  Obedient  to  his  orders,  the 
governor  of  Pensacola  would  allow  no  foreign  vessel  to  enter 
the  harbor.  Sailing  to  the  rest,  Iberville  cast  anchor  south- 
south-east  of  the  eastern  point  of  IMobile,  and  landed  on  IVIus- 
sacre,  or,  as  it  was  ratiier  called,  Dauphine  island.  The  water 
between  Shij)  and  Horn  islands  being  found  too  shallow,  the 
lai'ger  ship  from  the  station  of  San  Domingo  returned,  and  the 
frigates  anchored  near  the  groups  of  the  Chandeleur,  while 
Iberville  with  his  people  erected  huts  on  Ship  island,  and  made 
the  discovery  of  the  I'iver  Pascagoula  and  the  tribes  of  Biloxi. 
The  next  day,  a  party  of  l)ayagoidas  from  the  Mississippi 
passed  by :  they  were  warriors  returning  from  a  foray  on  the 
Indians  of  Mobile. 

In  two  barges,  Iberville  and  his  brother  Bienville,  with  a 
Franciscan  who  had  been  a  companion  to  La  Salle,  and  with 
forty-eight  men,  set  forth  to  seek  the  Mississippi.  Floating 
trees,  and  the  turbid  aspect  of  the  waters,  guided  to  its  mouth. 
On  the  second  day  in  AEarch,  they  entered  the  mighty  river, 
and  ascended  to  the  village  of  the  Eayagoulas — a  tribe  which 
then  dwelt  on  its  western  bank,  just  below  the  river  Iberville, 
M'orshi2>ping,  it  Avas  said,  an  opossum  for  their  manitou,  and 
jirer-erving  in  their  temple  an  undying  fire.  There  they  found 
a  letter  from  Tonti  to  La  Salle,  written  in  l('»S-i.  The  Oumas 
were  visited ;  and  the  party  probably  saw  the  great  bend  at 
the  mouth  of  tho  Red  river.  A  parish  and  a  bayou,  that  bear 
the  name  of  Il)erville,  mark  the  route  of  his  return,  throue;!! 
the  lakes  which  he  named  Maurepas  an(^  Pontchartrain,  to  the 
bay  which  he  called  St.  Louis.  At  the  head  of  the  bay  of 
Biloxi,  on  a  sandy  shore,  under  a  burning  sun,  he  erected,  in 
May,  the  fort  which,  with  its  four  bastions  and  twelve  cannon, 
was  to  be  the  sign  of  French  jurisdiction  over  the  territory 
from  near  the  Rio  Bravo  del  Norte  to  the  conlines  of  Pen- 
sacola.    While  Iberville  liimseH  sailed  for  France,  his  two 


1099-1701.      RIVALRY  OF  FRANCE  AND  BRITAIN. 


189 


brothers,  Sauvollo  and  BienvMlle,  were  left  in  command  of  tlio 
station,  round  wliicii  i.  )  few  colonists  were  i)lanted.  Tims 
begun  the  commonwealth  of  Mississippi.  Prosperity  was  im- 
possible ;  yet  there  were  gleams  of  light :  the  white  men  from 
Carolina,  allies  of  the  Chicasas,  invaded  the  neighboring 
tribes  of  Indians,  making  it  easy  for  the  French  to  establish 
alliances.  Missionanes  had  already  conciliated  the  good-will 
of  remoter  nations ;  and,  from  the  Taensas  and  the  Yazoos, 
Davion — whose  name  belonged  of  old  to  the  rock  now  called 
Fort  Adams — and  Montigny  floated  down  the  ]\[ississipp:  to 
visit  their  conntrymen.  A  line  of  conunmiication  existed  be- 
tween Quebec  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  boundless  south- 
ern region,  made  a  part  of  the  French  em])ire  by  lilies  carved 
on  forest-trees  or  crosses  erected  on  bluii's,  and  occupied  by 
French  missionaries  and  forest  rangers,  was  aimexed  to  the 
connuand  of  the  governor  of  Biloxi. 

During  the  absence  of  Iberville,  England  showed  jealousy 
of  his  enterprise.  Hennepin  had  been  taken  into  the  pay  of 
William  III.,  and,  in  1('»9S,  had  published  a  new  w',rk,  in 
which,  to  bar  the  French  claim  of  discovery,  he,  with  impudent 
falsehood,  insisted  on  having  himself  been  the  first  to  descend 
the  Mississippi,  and  had  interjwlated  into  his  former  narrative 
a  journal  of  this  pretended  voyage  down  the  river.  In  lO'Ji), 
an  exploring  expedition,  under  the  auspices  of  Coxe,  a  proprie- 
tor of  New  Jersey,  sought  for  the  mouths  of  the  ]\Iississippi. 
When  Bienville,  who  passed  the  summer  in  exploring  the  forks 
below  the  site  of  New  Orleans,  descended  the  river  in  Septem- 
ber, he  met  an  English  shij)  of  sixteen  guns,  commanded  by 
Barr ;  one  of  two  vessels  which  had  been  sent  to  sound  the 
channel  of  the  stream,  (living  heed  to  the  assertion  of  Bien- 
ville of  French  supremacy,  as  proved  by  French  establish- 
ments, the  English  captain  turned  back  ;  and  the  bend  in  the 
river  where  the  interview  was  held  is  still  called  English  Turn. 

Thus  failed  the  project  of  Coxe  to  possess  what  he  styled 
the  English  province  of  Carolana.  But  Hennepin  had  had  nv 
audience  of  "William  III. ;  a  memorial  from  Coxe  Avas  pre- 
sented to  the  king  in  council,  and  the  members  were  unani- 
mous in  the  opinion  that  the  settling  of  the  banks  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi should  be  encouraged.   William  of  Orange  often  assured 


'  N 


■\  1 


«  ' 


i    I 


l.M 


111 


i     :     t. 


190      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748. 


PAUT  III, ;  rn.  xi. 


^1    ] 


tlic  proprietor  of  his  Avillingnoss  to  send  over,  at  his  o\vii  cost 
several  hundred  nn<i^i,eiiot  ami  Vaudois  refiigi'es.     Hut  Enrr- 
land  was  never  dewtined  to  aecpiire  more  than  a  nominal  pos- 
session of  the  Mississippi;  and  Spain  could  only  j)rote.st  against 
what  it  professed  to  regard  as  a  dismemhenrvent  of  Mexico. 

In  lf)J)i),  Bienville  received  the  memorial  of  French  Protes- 
tants to  be  allowed,  under  French  sovereignty  and  in  the  en- 
joyment  of  freedom  of  conscience,  to  plant  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi.  "The  king,"  answered  Pontchartrain  at  Paris, 
"  has  not  driven  Protestants  from  Franco  to  make  a  republic 
of  them  in  Ame.ica;"  and  Iberville  returned  from  Europe 
with  i)rojects  far  unlike  the  peaceful  jmrsuits  of  agriculture. 
First  came  the  occupation  of  the  Mississippi  by  a  fortress  built, 
in  January  1700,  on  a  point  elevated  above  the  marshes,  not 
far  from  the  sea,  soon  to  be  abtrndoned.  In  Febmary,  Tonti 
came  down  from  the  Illinois;  and,  under  his  guidance,  the 
brothers  Iberville  and  Bienville  ascended  the  Great  Kiver 
and  made  peace  between  the  Oumas  and  the  Bayagoulas. 
Among  the  Natchez,  the  Great  Sun,  followed  by  a  large  retinue 
of  his  people,  welcomed  the  strangers. 

Iberville  in  March  explored  western  Louisiana,  and,  cross- 
ing the  Eed  river,  approached  New  :Mexico.  No  tidings  of 
mines  or  of  wealth  were  gleaned  from  the  natives.  In  April, 
a  company  under  Le  Sueur,  in  search  of  mineral  stores,  entered 
the  St,  Peter's,  ascended  that  river  to  the  confluence  of  the  Blue 
Earth,  and,  in  a  fort  among  lowas,  passed  a  finaitless  winter, 

Le  Sueur  had  not  yet  returned  to  Biloxi  wlien,  in  May 
1701,  word  came  from  the  impatient  ministry  of  impoverished 
Fiance  that  certainly  there  were  gold  mines  on  the  Missouri. 
But  bihous  fevers  sent  death  among  the  dreamers  who  went 
there  for  precious  metals  and  rocks  of  emerald.  SauvoUe  was 
an  eariy  victim,  leaving  the  chief  command  to  the  youthful 
Bienville ;  and  great  havoc  was  made  among  the  colonists,  who 
were  dependent  on  the  red  men  for  com,  and  were  saved  from 
famine  by  the  chase  and  the  net  and  line.  The  Choctas  and 
the  Mobile  Indians  desired  an  alliance  against  the  Chicasas; 
and  the  French  were  too  weak  to  act,  except  as  mediators.  In 
December,  Iberville,  arriving  with  re-enforcements,  found  but 
one  hundred  and  lifty  alive. 


1701-1706.      RIVALRY  OF  FRANCE  AND   RRITAIN. 


191 


Early  in  1702,  the  chief  fortress  of  the  Froncli  was  trans- 
ferred from  Biloxi  totlie  western  bank  of  tlio  ^[obilo  river,  tlio 
iirst  settlement  of  Europeans  in  Alabama;  and  during  the 
same  season,  though  Dauphine  island  was  ilat,  and  covered 
with  sands  which  hardly  nourished  a  grove  of  pines,  its  excel- 
lent harbor  was  occupied  as  a  convenient  station  for  ships. 
Such  wiis  Louisiana  in  the  days  of  its  founder.  Attacked  by 
the  yellow  fever,  Iberville  escaped  with  broken  health ;  and, 
though  he  gained  strength  to  render  service  to  France  in  1700, 
tiie  etfort  was  followed  by  a  severe  illness,  which  terminated  in 
his  death  at  the  Havana.  In  liim,  the  colonies  and  the  French 
navy  lost  a  hero  worthy  of  their  regret.  But  Louisiana,  at  his 
dei)arturo,  was  little  more  than  a  wilderness,  occui)ied  in  behalf 
of  the  French  king  by  scarcely  thirty  families.  The  colonists 
were  unwise  in  their  objects,  searching  for  ])earls,  for  the  wool 
of  the  buffalo,  for  mines.  There  was  im  quiet  agricultural  in- 
dustry. The  coast  of  Biloxi  is  as  sandy  as  the  deserts  of  Lib- 
ya ;  the  soil  on  Dauphine  island  is  meagre :  on  the  delta  of  the 
Mississippi,  where  a  fort  had  ])cen  l)uilt,  Bienville  and  his  few 
soldiera  were  at  the  mercy  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  nver. 
The  hissing  of  snakes,  the  cr}^  of  alligators,  seemed  to  claim  the 
country  still  for  a  generation  as  the  inheritance  of  reptiles; 
while  the  barrens  round  the  fort  of  Mobile  warned  the  emi- 
grants to  seek  homes  farther  within  the  land. 


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11)2      niJlTlSlI  AMEIIICA  FliUM  10H8  TU  174H.     pahtiu.;  ,i,.  xir. 


CTIAPTKTl   XIT. 

THK   AVAIJ   OF   TIIIO   SPANISH    8UCCE88IOW. 

In  tho  first  war  of  AVilliiuii  III.  with  FriUice,  Spain  to(»k 
no  part ;  wo  conio  to  the  events  wiiich  united  tho  two  kiiig- 
(lonis  l)_y  a  family  compact. 

Tiie  liberties  of  the  provinces,  the  mihtary  corporations,  and 
tliG  cities  of  Spain  had  heen  p;radiially  absorhe<l  hy  the  power 
of  the  monarch ;  and  the  inquisition  had  so  manacled  tlie  na- 
tional intellii^a'iice  that  the  country  of  Cervantes  had  rela^  sed 
into  inactivity.  The  contest  a<j;ainst  the  Arabs  had  been  for 
seven  centuries  the  stru<j:<jjle  of  Catholic  Christiaiuty  a«raiiist 
^Foslem  theism  ;  and  had  given  to  S|);,nlsh  character  the  rigid 
asjjcct  of  oxclusiveness  which  was  heightened  by  tho  barrier 
presented  by  the  Pyrenees  to  easy  conumiiuciition  with  the 
rest  of  Kurope,  France  had  establislied  its  unity  by  amalga- 
mating provinces  on  the  principle  of  e(itiality  ;  Spain  had  made 
war  on  a  nation  i.nd  a  religion,  ^[oreover,  she  had  lost  men. 
From  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  to  I'hilip  II!.,  she  had  expelled 
three  millions  of  Jews  and  aSFoors  ;  her  inferior  nobility  emi- 
grated to  America;  in  1T(»2,  her  census  enumerated  less  than 
seven  million  souls.  The  nation  that  oncewindd  have  invaded 
Enghuid  had  no  navy ;  and,  ])ossessing  miiies  in  Mexico  and 
South  America,  it  needed  sul)script ions  for  if;  dofenee.  For- 
eigners, by  means  of  loans  and  mortgair<^»',  aahie  I  more  4ian 
seven  eighths  of  its  wealth  from  America,  and  furn  died  more 
than  nine  tenths  of  the  merchandise  shipped  for  the  colonies. 
Spanish  connnerce  had  expired  ;  Spanisli  mamifactures  had 
declined ;  even  agriculture  had  fallen  a  victim  to  mortmains 
and  privilege.  Iiuictivity  M-as  followed  by  poverty ;  and,  on 
clie  tlurtieth  of  October  1701,  its  dynasty  became  extinct. 


1701-1700.   TlIK   WAR  OF  TIIK  SPANISH  SUCCESSION. 

If  the  'loctrino  of  k'lritirnnoy  \m-e  to  be  reco^r„iHed  iw  para- 
inouiit  to  tivatioH,  tlio  kiii^'  of  I'ranco  could  claim  for  his  own 
family  the  inhcntanco  of  Spain.     Tliat  elaiiP  waa  Hanctionod 
by  the  teHtatiuiiit  of  the  last  Spanish  kin^^  and  by  the  denire 
of  the  Si)aniHh  i)eopl(',  whose  an^'cr  had  hein  roused  hy  a^ 
temptH  at  the  i)artiti()n  of  its  posHeHHions.     The  crown  of  Si)aiii 
hold  the  Low  CountricH,  the  JMilanene,  and  the  Two  Sicilies, 
hosidoH  its  world   iit   the  Indies;  and  the  union  of  so  many 
Htatea  in  the  family  of  the  Hourhons  seemed  to  threaten  the 
freedom  of  Europe,  and  to  secure  to  France  colonial  supremacy. 
William   III.  resolved  on  war.     In  ITOii,  tiie  last  year  of  hi^ 
life,  Huirerin^r  from  a  mortal  disease— with  swollen  feet,  voice 
extinguished ;  too  itifirm  to  receive  visits ;  alone  at  the  castle 
of  St.  Loo— he  rallied  new  alliances,  governed  the  policy  of 
Eurojje,  and  shaped  the  territorial  destinies  of  America.     In 
the  midst  of  negotiations,  James  IL  died  at  St.  (iermain  •  and 
the  king  of  Franco  incensed  the  Uritish  nation  by  recognising 
the  son  of  the  royal  exile  as  the  legitimate  king  of  Great  Brit- 
ain.   Louis  XIV.,  "  that  wicked  persecutor  of  God's  people," 
as  he  was  calied  in  a  Boston  puli)it,  was  grown  old ;  and  the 
men  of  energy  in  his  cabinet  and  his  army  wei-e  gone.     There 
was  no  Colbert  to  put  order  into  his  finances ;  Luxembourg 
was  dead,  and  the  wise  Catinat  no  more  in  favor.     Two  years 
passed  without  reverses  ;  but,  in  1704,  tlie  battle  of  Blenlieim 
revealed  tlie  whaustion  of  PVance.     The  armies  of  Louis  XIV. 
were  opposed  l)y  troops  from  England,  the  German  empirej 
Holland,  Savoy,  Portugal,   Denmark,  Prussia,  and  Lorniinc, 
under  the  command  of  Eugene  and  Marlborough,  who,  com- 
pleting the  triumvirate  with  Ileinsius,  the  grand  i)ensionary  of 
Holland,   combined   in   their  service  money,  numbers,  fore- 
thought, and  genius. 

The  central  colonies  of  our  rc]>ublic  were  undisturbed, 
except  as  they  were  invited  to  aid  in  defending  the  borders' 
or  were  alarmed  by  a  privateer  off  their  coast.  The  Five  Na- 
tions, ;it  peace  with  France  and  England,  protected  New  York 
hyac.  4)act  of  neutrality  Avith  them  both.  South  Carohna 
cond  Neu  England  were  alone  involved  in  direct  war. 

The  gc.ernor  of  South  Carolina,  James  Moore,  by  the  de- 
sire of  the  commons,  placed  himself  at  the  hen,d  of  an  expe- 

VOL.  II. — 13 


i-  I 


it 


I  I 


^1 


-'  * 


104      BRITISH  AMERICxi  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.     paetiii.;  oh.  mi. 

dition  for  the  reduction  of  St.  Augustine.  Tiie  town  was  easily 
ravaged ;  to  besiege  the  castle,  heavy  artillery  has  been  asked 
for  of  Jamaica,  At  the  instance  of  JBienville,  then  in  Mobile, 
two  Spanish  vessels  appeared  near  the  harbor ;  Moore,  abandon- 
ing his  sliips  and  stores,  retreated  by  land.  The  colony,  bur- 
dened with  debt,  pleaded  the  precedent  "  of  great  and  rich  coun- 
tries," RTid,  confident  that  "  funds  of  credit  have  fully  answered 
the  ends  of  money,"  issued  bills  of  credit  to  the  amount  of 
six  thousand  pounds.  To  Carohna,  the  first-fruits  of  war  were 
debt  and  paper  money. 

The  Spaniards  had  gathered  the  natives  on  the  bay  of 
Appalachce  into  towns,  built  for  them  churches,  and  instructed 
them  by  Franciscan  priests.  The  tradci-s  of  Carolina  beheld 
with  alarm  the  line  of  communication  from  St,  Augustine  to 
the  incipient  settlements  in  Louisiana ;  anc\  in  the  last  weelcs 
of  1705,  a  comjiany  of  fifty  volunteers,  under  the  command  of 
Moore,  assisted  by  a  thousand  savage  allies,  following  the  trad- 
ing path  across  the  Ocmulgee,  came  upon  the  Muskohgee 
towns  near  St.  Mark's,  Their  inhabitants  had  learned  the  use 
of  horses  and  of  beeves,  which  multiplied  without  care  in  their 
groves.  At  sunrise,  on  the  fourteenth  of  December,  the  ad- 
venturers reached  the  strong  place  of  Ayavalla,  Beaten  back 
from  an  assault,  they  set  fire  to  the  chnrch,  which  adjoined  the 
fort.  A  "  barefoot  friar  "  vainly  begged  for  mercy ;  more  than 
a  hundred  women  and  children  and  more  than  fifty  warriors 
were  taken  prisoners  for  the  slave-market.  On  the  next  morn- 
ing, the  Spanish  commander  on  the  bay,  with  twenty-three 
soldiers  and  four  hundred  Indians,  gave  battle,  and  was  de- 
feated, Tlie  chief  of  Ivitachma  "compounded  for  peace  with 
the  plate  of  his  church  and  ten  horses  laden  with  provisions," 
Five  other  townis  submitted  wnthout  conditions,  and  most  of 
their  people  removed  as  free  emigrants  into  South  Carolina, 

In  the  next  year,  a  French  scpiadron  from  the  Havana  at- 
tempted revenge  l)y  an  invasion  of  Cliarlest(m  ;  but  the  brave 
"William  Rliett  and  the  governor.  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson,  pre- 
pared defence.  The  Huguenots  panted  for  action.  One  of 
the  French  ships  was  taken ;  wherever  a  landing  Avas  effected, 
the  enemy  was  attacked  with  such  energy  that,  of  eight  hun- 
dred, three  hundred  were  killed  or  taken  prisoners.     Unaided 


1703-1708.    THE  WAR  OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION.        195 

l)y  lier  proprietaries,  South  Carolina,  witli  little  loss,  repelled 
the  invaders.  The  result  was  an  indefinite  extension  of  the 
English  boundary  toward  the  south. 

For  Massachusetts,  the  history  of  the  war  is  luit  a  record  of 
sorrows.    The  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  now  governor  of  Canada 
made  haste  to  conciliate  the  Iroquois.     He  formed  a  treaty  of 
neutrality  with  the  Senecas,  and,  to  prevent  its  rupture  he 
sent  no  war-parties  against  New  York.  ' 

The  English  were  less  successful  in  their  plans  of  neutral- 
ity with  the  Abenakis.  Within  six  weeks,  the  country  from 
Casco  to  Wells  was  in  a  conflagration.  On  the  tenth  of  Au- 
gust, 1703,  the  several  parties  of  Indians  and  French  burst 
upon  every  house  or  garrison  in  that  region,  sparing,  says  the 
faithful  chronicler,  "neither  the  milk-white  brows  of  the  an- 
cient nor  the  mournful  cries  of  tender  infants."  Cruelty  be- 
came an  art,  and  honor  was  awarded  to  the  most  skilful  con- 
triver of  tortures. 

Deatli  hung  on  the  frontier.     The  farmers,  that  had  built 
their  dwellings  on  the  bank  just  above  the  beautiful  meadows 
of  Deerfield,  had  surrounded  with  pickets  an  enclosure  of 
twenty  acres,  the  village  citadel.     There  were  separate  dwell- 
lug-liouses,  likewise  fortified  by  a  circle  of  sticks  of  timber  set 
upright  in  the  ground.     Their  occupants  knew,  throno-h  the 
Moha^vks,  tliat  danger  was  at  hand.    All  that  .nnter,  there  was 
not  a  night  but  the  sentinel  was  ab  mad ;  not  a  mother  lulled 
hor  i-ifant  to  rest  without  fearuig  that,  before  mornino-  the 
tomahawk  might  crush  its  skull.    The  snow  lay  four  feet  deep 
wlien  the  clear,  invigorating  air  of  midwinter  cheered    the 
war-party  of  about  two  hundred  French  and  one  hundred  and 
forty-two  Indians,  who,  with  the  aid  of  snow-shoes  and  led  by 
llertel  de  Ptouville,  had  walked  on  the  crust  all  the  way  from 
Cana.la.    On  the  last  night  in  February  1 704,  a  pine  forest  near 
Deerfield  gave  them  sheltei-  till  after  midniglit.    AVhen,  at  the 
approach  of  morning,  the  unfaithful  sentinels  retired  the  war- 
party  entered  within  the  palisades,  which  drifts  of  snow  had 
made  useless ;  and  the  war-whoop  of  tlie  savages  bade  each 
family  prenare  for  captivity  or  death.     Tlie  village  was  set  on 
fare,  and  all  but  tlie  church  and  .me  dwelling-hnuse  were  con, 
sumed.    Of  the  inhabitants,  but  few  escaped :  forty-seven  were 


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<IH  :H'JS«e:  i-*i!  . 


196      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.     pakt  iii. ;  cir.  xii. 

killed ;  one  Imndrcd  and  twelve,  iuelnding  the  minister  and 
Lis  family,  were  ]iiade  captives.     One  hour  after  simrise,  the 
party  began  its  return  to  Canada.     But  who  would  know  the 
horrors  of  that  winter  nuirch  through  the  wilderness  ?     Two 
men  starved  to  death.     Did  a  young  child  weep  from  fatigue, 
or  a  woman  totter  from  anguish  under  the  burden  of  her  own 
offspring,  the  tomahawk  stilled  comi)laint,  or  the  infant  was 
cast  out  upon  the  snow.     Eimice  Williams,  the  wife  of  the 
minister,  had  not  forgotten  her  Bible ;  and,  when  they  rested 
by  the  wayside,  or  at  night  made  their  couch  of  branches  of 
evergreen  strown  on  the  snow,  the  savages  allowed  her  to  read 
it.      Having  but  recently  recovered   from  coniinement,  her 
strength  soon  failed.     To  her  husband,  who  renunded  her  of 
the  "house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens," 
"she  justified  God  in  what  had  happened."     The  mother's 
heart  rose  to  her  lips  as  she  commended  her  live  captive  chil- 
dren, under  (lod,  to  their  father's  care;  and  then  one  blow 
from  a  tomahawk  ended  her  sorrows.     "  She  rests  in  peace," 
said  her  husband,  "  and  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory." 
lu  Canada,  no  eiitreaties,  no  offers  of  ransom,  could  rescue  his 
youngest  daughter,  then  a  child  of  but  seven  years  old.    Adojit- 
ed  into  the  village  of  the  pmying  Indians  near  Montreal,  sh- 
became  a  proselyte  to  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the  wife  of  a  Cah- 
newaga  chief.    When,  after  long  years,  she  \'isited  her  friends 
at  Deortield,  she  appeared  in  an  Indian  dress ;  and,  making  a 
short  sojourn,  in  spite  of  a  day  of  fast  of  a  whole  village 
which  assembled  to  pray  for  her  deliverance,  she  r(^tm-ned  to 
the  tires  of  her  wigwam  and  to  the  love  of  her  Mohawk  chil- 
dren. 

From  1705  to  1707,  the  prowling  Indian  stealthily  ap- 
proached towns  even  in  the  heart  of  :Massachusetts.  Children, 
as  they  gambolled  on  the  beach  ;  mowers,  as  they  swung  the 
scj-the ;  mothers,  as  they  busied  themselves  about  the  house- 
hold—fell victims  to  an  enemy  who  was  ever  present  where  a 
garrison  or  a  family  ceased  its  vigilance,  and  disappeared  after 
striking  a  blow. 

In  1708,  after  a  war-council  at  Montreal,  the  French,  under 
Des  Chaillons  and  Ilertel  de  Rouville,  with  Algonkin  allies, 
ascended  the  8t.  Francis,  and,  parsing  by  the  White  Muuu- 


1708-1710.    THE   WAR  OF  THE   SPANISH  SUCCESSION.        197 

tains,  lia\ang  travelled  near  one  liimdred  and  fifty  leagues, 
made  their  rendezvous  at  Winnipiseogee.  There  they  failed 
to  meet  the  expected  aid  from  the  Abenakis,  and,  in  conse- 
quence, were  too  feeble  to  attack  Portsmouth ;  they  therefore 
descended  the  Merrimack  to  the  town  of  Haverhill,  which  was, 
at  that  time,  a  cluster  of  thirty  cottages  and  log  cabins,  em- 
bosomed iu  the  primeval  forests,  near  the  tranquil  Merrimack. 
In  tlie  centre  of  the  settlement  stood  a  new  meeting-house,  the 
pride  of  the  village.  On  the  few  acres  of  open  land,  the  ripen- 
ing Indian  corn  rose  over  the  charred  stumps  of  trees ;  on  the 
north  and  west  the  unbroken  wilderness  stretched  beyond  the 
White  Mountains.  On  the  twenty-ninth  of  August,  evening 
prayers  had  been  offered  in  each  family,  and  the  village  had 
resigned  itself  to  sleep.  That  night  the  invaders  slept  quietly 
in  the  near  forest.  At  daybreak  they  assumed  the  order  of 
battle ;  Eouvillc  addressed  the  soldiers,  who,  after  their  orisons, 
marched  against  the  fort,  raised  the  shrill  yell,  and  dispersed 
themselves  through  the  village  to  their  work  of  blood.  The 
rilie  rang ;  the  cry  of  the  dying  rose.  Benjamin  Rolfe,  the 
minister,  was  beaten  to  death ;  one  Indian  sunk  a  hatchet  deep 
into  the  brain  of  his  wife,  while  another  dashed  the  head  of  his 
infant  child  against  a  stone.  Thomas  Ilartshorne  and  two  of 
his  sons,  attem])ting  a  rally,  were  shot;  a  third  son  was  toma- 
hawked. John  Johnston  was  shot  by  the  side  of  his  ^dfe  ;  she 
tied  into  the  garden,  bearing  an  infant ;  was  caught  and  mur- 
dered ;  but,  as  she  fell,  she  concealed  her  child,  which  wtis 
found,  after  the  massacre,  clinging  to  her  breast.  Simon  Wain- 
right  was  killed  at  the  first  fire.  ]\Iary,  his  wife,  unbarred 
tlie  door;  with  cheerful  mien  bade  the  savages  enter;  fur- 
nished them  what  they  wished;  and,  when  they  demanded 
money,  she  retired  as  if  to  "bring  it,''  and,  gathering  up  all  her 
children  save  one,  succeeded  in  escaping. 

As  the  destroyers  retired,  Samuel  Ayer,  ever  to  be  remem- 
bered in  village  annals,  with  a  force  which  equalled  but  a  thir- 
teenth part  of  the  invaders,  hung  on  their  rear — himself  a  vic- 
tim, yet  rescuing  several  from  captivity. 

The  day  was  advanced  when  the  battle  ended.  The  rude 
epitaph  on  the  moss-grown  stone  tells  where  the  interment  was 
made  In  haste ;  Ilolfe,  his  wife,  and  child,  fill  one  grave ;  in 


tl       ; 


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198      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.    paht  in. 


cir.  XII. 


the  bui-ial-ground  of  the  village,  an  ancient  mound  marks  tlie 
resting-place  of  the  multitude  of  tlie  slain. 

"  1  hold  it  my  duty  toward  God  and  my  neighbor,"  such 
was  the  message  of  the  brave  Peter  Schuyler  to  the  Marquis 
de  Yaudreuil,  "to  prevent,  if  possible,  these  barbarous  and 
heathen  cruelties.  My  heart  swells  with  indignation  when  I 
think  that  a  war  between  Christian  princes,  bound  to  the  ex- 
actest  laws  of  honor  and  generosity,  which  their  noble  ances- 
tors have  illustrated  by  brilliant  examples,  is  degenerating  into 
a  savage  and  boundless  butchery." 

Such  fruitless  cinielties  compelled  the  employment  of  a 
large  part  of  the  inhabitants  as  soldiers ;  so  in  one  year,  during 
this  war,  even  a  fifth  part  of  all  who  were  able  to  bear  arms 
were  in  active  service.  They  fostered  a  Avillingness  to  exter- 
minate the  natives.  The  Indians  vanislied  when  their  homes 
were  invaded  ;  hence  a  bounty  was  offered  for  every  Indian 
scalp  ;  to  regular  forces  under  pay,  the  grant  was  ten  pounds ; 
to  volunteers  in  actual  service,  twice  that  sum  ;  but  volunteers 
u-ithout  pay  were  encouraged  by  the  promise  of  "  fifty  pounds 
per  scalp." 

Meantime,  the  English  had  repeatedly  made  efforts  to  gain 
the  French  fortress  on  Newfoundland  ;  and  New  England,  for 
the  security  of  its  trade  and  fishery,  desired  the  reduction  of 
Acadia.      In  170i,  a  fleet  from  Boston  harbor  defied  Port 
Royal ;  three  years  afterward,  under  the  influence  of  Dudley, 
Massachusetts  attempted  its  concjuest.     The  costly  expedition 
was  thwarted  by  the  activity  of  Castin,  and  was  followed  in 
the  colony  by  increased  paper  money  and  public  debt.    But 
England  was  resolved  on  colonial  acquisitions ;  in  1700,  a  fleet 
and  an  army  were  to  be  sent  from  Europe ;  from  Massachu- 
setts and  Rhode  Island,  twelve  hundred  men  were  to  aid  in 
the  conquest  of  Quebec ;  from  the  central  provinces,  fifteen 
hundred  were  to  assail  jMontreal ;  and,  in  one  season,  Acadia, 
Canada,  and  Newfoundland  were  to  be  reduced  under  British 
sovereignty.     The  colonies  kindled  at  the  prospect :  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  preparation,  Comiecticut  and  New  York  and 
New  Jersey  then  first  issued  l)ills  of  credit ;  stoi-es  were  col- 
lected, troops  levied,  but  no  English  fleet  arrived. 

At  last,  in  1710,  the  successful  exj)edition  against  Acndia 


1710-1711.    THE  WAR  OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION.        199 

took  place.  At  the  instance  of  Nicholson,  who  had  been  in 
England  for  that  purpose,  six  English  vessels  under  his  com- 
mand, joined  by  thirty  of  New  England,  and  four  New  Eng- 
land regiments,  sailed  in  September  from  Boston.  In  six  days 
the  licet  anchored  before  the  fortress  of  Port  Eoyal.  The 
troops  under  Subercase,  the  French  governor,  were  few  and 
disheartened.  Famine  would  have  soon  compelled  a  sm-ren- 
der  at  discretion.  Terms  of  capitidation  were  easily  concerted ; 
on  the  sixteenth  of  October,  new  style,  the  garrison,  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-six,  marched  out,  with  the  honors  of  war.  From 
that  day  the  English  flag  has  been  safe  at  the  town,  which  in 
honor  of  the  queen  was  called  Annapolis. 

Flushed  with  victory,  Nicholson  repaired  to  England  to 
urge  the  conquest  of  Canada.  The  legislature  of  New  York 
had  unanimously  appealed  to  the  queen  on  the  dangerous  prog- 
ress ^  French  dominion  at  the  West.  "  It  is  well  knowm," 
said  their  address,  "  that  the  Frencli  can  go  by  Avater  from 
Quebec  to  Montreal.  From  thence  they  can  do  the  like, 
through  rivers  and  lakes,  at  the  back  of  all  your  majesty's 
plantations  on  this  continent  as  far  as  Carolina ;  and  in  this 
large  tract  of  coimtry  live  several  nations  of  Indians  who  are 
vastly  numerous.  Among  those,  they  constantly  send  emis- 
saiies  and  priests,  with  toys  and  trifles,  to  insinuate  themselves 
into  their  favor.  Afterward  they  send  traders,  then  soldiers, 
and  at  last  build  forts  among  them;  the  garrisons  are  en- 
couraged to  intermarry,  cohabit,  and  incorporate  among  them ; 
and  it  may  easily  be  concluded  that,  upon  a  peace,  many  of 
the  disbanded  soldiers  will  be  sent  thither  for  that  purpose." 
At  the  same  time,  five  chiefs  from  the  Iroquois  sailed  with 
Schuyler  for  England.  In  London,  amid  the  gaze  of  crowds, 
dressed  in  English  small-clothes  of  black,  Avith  scarlet  ingrain 
cloth  mantles  edged  with  gold  for  their  blankets,  they  were 
conducted  in  coaches  to  an  audience  with  Queen  Anne,  to 
whom  they  gave  belts  of  wampum,  and  avowed  their  readi- 
ness to  take  up  the  hatchet  for  the  reduction  of  Canada. 

In  1711,  the  secretary  of  state  was  Saint-John,  after- 
ward raised  to  the  peerage  as  Viscount  Eolingbroke,  whom  a 
keen  observer  described  as  "  the  greatest  young  man  "  of  his 
(lay.     Tin  possessed  Avit,  quickness  of  apprehension,  learning, 


!i'      I 


iiJi: 


200     BRITISn  AMERICA  FPOM  1688  TO  1748.    part  iii. ;  on.  xii. 

and  excellent  taste.     Thongh  fond  of  pleasure,  he  was  prompt, 
and  capable  of  close  and  long-continued  uppliciition.    Winuinc^ 
friends  by  liis  good  temper  and  charming  conversation,  he  was 
the  best  orator  in  the  house  of  commons  ;  and  parliament  was 
infatuated  by  his  eloquence.     But  Saint- John  had  no  faith, 
and  therefore  could  keep  none.    He  could  be  time  in  his  at- 
tachment to  a  woman  or  a  friend,  but  not  to  a  principle  or  a 
people.     "The  rabble,"  he  would  say,  "is  a  monstrous  beast, 
that  has  passions  to  be  moved,  but  no  reason  to  be  appealed 
to;  plain  sense  will  intluence  half  a  score  of  men  at  most, 
while  mystery  will  lead  miUions  by  the  nose;"  and,  having  no 
reliance  in  the  power  of  the  conmion  mind  to  discern  the  right, 
or  in  the  power  of  truth  to  guide  through  perils,  he  could  give 
no  lixedncss  to  his  administration,  and  no  security  to  his  fame 
Demanding  intellectual  freedom,  he  was  author  of  the  tax  on 
newspapers.     Indifferent  to  religion,  lie  was  the  unscrupulous 
champion  of  the  high  church,  and  supported  the  worst  acts  of 
Its  most  intolerant  policy,  while  ho  despised  its  priests  and 
derided  its  doctrines.     As  he  grew  older,  he  wrote  on  patriot- 
ism and  liberty,  and,  from  the  dupe  of  the  Pretender,  became 
the   suitor  for  power  through   the   king's   mistress.      Thus, 
though  capable  of  great  ideas,  and  catching  glimpses  of  univer- 
sal truth,  his  horizon  was  shut  in  by  the  seliishness  of  his  am- 
bition.    Writing  brilliant  treatises  on  philosophy,  he  fretted 
at  the  bit  which  curbed  his  passions;  and,  from  the  unsettled 
character  of  his  mind,  though  rapid  in  api)ropriating  a  scheme, 
he  could  not  arrange  an  enterprise  with  method.      Full  of 
energy  and  restless  activity,  ho  wanted  soimdness  of  judgment 
and  power  of  combination.     Such  Avas   the  statesman"  who 
formed  the  design  of  the  conquest  of  Canada. 

The  fleet,  consisting  of  lifteeu  ships-of-war  and  forty  trans- 
ports, was  placed  under  the  command  of  Sir  Ilovenden  Walk- 
er; seven  veteran  regiments  from  Mariborouirh's  army,  with 
a  battalion  of  marines,  were  intrusted  to  Mrs.  irasham's  second 
brotlier,  whom  the  queen  had  pensioned  and  made  a  brigadier- 
general;  whom  his  bottle  companions  called  honest  Jack  Hill; 
whom,  when  a  tall,  ragged  boy,  the  duchess  of  Marlborough 
had,  from  charity,  put  to  school ;  and  whom  the  duke,  refus- 
ing him  a  colonelcy,  had  properly  described  as  good  for  no- 


1711.         THE  WAR  OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION.  201 

tiling,  in  the  preparations,  the  public  treasury  was  defrauded 
for  the  benefit  of  favorities.  "  Improve  to-day,  instead  of  de- 
pending on  to-morrow;"  was  the  secretary's  admonition  to  his 
admiral.  "  The  queen  is  very  uneasy  at  the  unaccountable 
loss  of  time  in  your  stay  at  Portsmouth."  The  fleet  did  sail 
at  last ;  and  when  Saint-John  heard  of  its  arrival  at  Boston,  he 
wrote  to  the  duke  of  Orrery :  "  I  believe  you  may  depend  on 
our  being  masters,  at  this  time,  of  all  North  America." 

From  June  twenty-fifth  to  the  thirtieth  day  of  July  1711, 
the  fleet  lay  at  Boston,  taking  in  supplies  and  the  colonial 
forces.  At  the  same  time,  an  army  of  men  from  Connecticut, 
New  Jersey,  and  New  York,  Palatine  emigrants,  and  about  six 
hundred  Iroquois,  assembling  at  Albany,  prepared  to  burst 
upon  Montreal ;  while  in  Wisconsin  the  English  had  allies  in 
the  Foxes,  who  were  always  wishing  to  expel  the  French  from 
Michigan. 

In  Quebec,  measures  of  defence  began  by  a  renewal  of 
friendship  with  the  Indians.  To  deputies  from  the  Ononda- 
gas  and  Senecas,  the  governor  spoke  of  the  fidelity  with  which 
the  French  had  kept  their  treaty ;  and  he  reminded  them  of 
their  promise  to  remain  quiet  upon  their  mats. 

A  war  festival  was  next  held,  at  which  were  present  all  the 
savages  domiciliated  near  the  French  settlements,  and  all  the 
delegates  of  their  allies  who  had  come  down  to  Montreal.  In 
the  presence  of  seven  or  eight  hundred  Avarriors,  the  war-song 
was  sung  and  the  hatchet  uplifted.  The  savages  of  the  re- 
mote West  were  wavering,  till  twenty  Ilurons  from  Detroit 
took  up  the  hatchet,  and  swayed  all  the  rest  by  their  example. 
By  tlie  influence  of  the  Jesuits  over  the  natives,  an  alliance 
extending  to  the  Ojibwas  constituted  the  defence  of  Montreal. 

Descending  to  Quebec,  Yaudreuil  found  Al)enaki  volun- 
teers assembling  for  his  protection.  Measures  for  resistance 
had  been  adopted  with  hearty  earnestness ;  the  fortifications 
Avere  strengthened  ;  Beauport  was  garrisc  ned ;  and  the  people 
were  resolute  and  confiding ;  even  women  were  ready  to  labor 
for  the  common  defence. 

Toward  the  last  of  August,  it  was  said  that  peasants  at 
Matancs  had  descried  ninety  or  ninety-six  vessels  with  the 
EngHsh  flag.     Yet  September  came,  and  still  from  the  heights 


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202     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748. 


PABT  in. ;  en.  xn. 


!      I, 


I     :    !M     ■' 


,J 


of  Cape  Diamond  no  eye  caught  one  sail  of  tlio  expected 
enemy. 

The  English  8(]uadron,  leaving  Boston  on  the  thirtieth  of 
July,  after  loitering  near  the  bay  of  (iaspe,  at  last  began  to 
ascend  the  St.  Lawrence,  while  Sir  Ilovenden  Walker  puz- 
zled himself  with  contriving  how  he  should  secure  his  vessels 
during  the  winter  at  Quebec.     Fearing  "  the  ice  in  the  river, 
freezing  to  the  bottom,  would  bilge  them,  as  nuich  as  if  they 
were  to  be  S(iueezed  between  rocks,"  he  could  tliiidc  of  no  way 
but  to  disencumber  them,  "  and  secure  them  on  the  dry  ground, 
in  frames  and  cradles,  till  the  thaw."     AVhile  ascending  the 
river,  which  he  took  to  be  "  a  hundred  fathom  deep,"  on  the 
evening  of  the  twenty-second  of  August,  a  thick  fog  came  on, 
with  an  easterly  breeze.     The  pilots,  with  one  accord,  advised 
that  tlie  fleet  should  lie  to,  with  the  heads  of  the  vessels  to  the 
soutliward ;  this  was  done,  and,  even  so,  the  vessels  were  cai-- 
ried  toward  the  northern  shore.     Just  as  Walker  was  going 
to  bed,  the  captain  of  his  ship  came  down  to  say  that  land 
could  be  seen  ;  and,  witliout  going  on  deck,  the  admiral  wan- 
tonly ordered  tlie  ships  to  head  to  the  north.     There  was  on 
the  quarter-deck  a  man  of  sense— Goddai-d,  a  captain  in  the 
land  service  :  he  rushed  to  the  cabin  in  great  haste,  and  impor- 
tuned the  admiral  at  least  to  come  on  deck ;  but  the  self-willed 
man  laughed  at  his  fears.     A  second  time  Goddard  returned, 
saying :  "  For  the  Lord's  sake,  come  on  deck,  or  we  shall  cer- 
tainly be  lost ;  I  see  breakers  all  around  us  ! "     "  Putting  on 
uiy  gown  and  slippers,"  writes  ^V^alker,  "  and  coming  up  on 
deck,  I  found  what  he  told  me  to  be  true."    Even  then  the 
blind  admiral  shouted  :  "  I  see  no  land  to  the  leeward !  "  but 
the  moon,  breaking  through  the  mists,  gave  him  the  lie.     The 
fleet  was  close  upon  the  north  shore,  among  the  Egg  islands. 
Now  the  admiral  believed  the  pilots,  and  made  sail  inunedi- 
ately  for  the  middle  of  the  river ;  but  morning  showed  ^hat 
eight  ships  had  been  wi-ecked,  and  eight  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  men  drowned.     A  council  of   war  votcfl  unanimously 
that  it  was  impossible  to  proceed.     "  Had  we  arrived  safe  at 
Quebec,"  wrote  the  admiral,  "  ten  or  twelve  thousand  men 
must  have  been  left  to  perish  of  cold  and  hmiger :  by  the  loss 
of  a  part,  Providence  saved  all  the  rest ! " 


.4 


1711-1712.   THE  WAR  OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION. 


203 


f     1 


Such  was  tlie  issue  of  hostilities  in  ilio  North-east.  Their 
total  failurj  left  the  expeditiou  from  Albany  no  option  but  to 
return,  and  Montreal  was  unmolested.  Detroit,  in  1712,  al- 
most fell  before  the  valor  of  a  party  of  the  Ottaganiies,  or 
Foxes,  a  nation  passionate  and  untamable,  springing  up  into 
new  life  from  every  defeat,  and  though  reduced  in  the  number 
of  their  warriors,  yet  present  everywhere  by  their  ferocious 
daring.  Kesohdng  to  burn  Detroit,  they  pitched  their  lodg- 
ings near  the  fort,  which  Du  Buisson,  with  but  twenty  French- 
men, defended.  Aware  of  their  intention,  lie  summoned  his 
Indian  allies  from  the  chase ;  and,  about  the  middle  of  j\Iay, 
Ottawas  and  Ilurons  and  I*ottawatomies,  M'ith  one  brancli  of 
the  Sacs,  lUinois,  Menomonies,  and  even  Osages  and  Missouris, 
each  nation  v,'ith  its  own  ensign,  came  to  his  relief.  So  wide 
was  the  influence  of  the  missionaries  in  the  West.  "  Father," 
said  they,  "  behold !  thy  children  compass  thee  round.  "VVe 
will,  if  need  be,  gladly  die  for  our  father ;  only  take  care  of 
our  wives  and  our  children,  and  spread  a  little  grass  over  our 
bodies  to  protect  them  against  the  flies."  The  warriors  of  the 
Fox  nation,  far  from  destroying  Detroit,  were  themselves  be- 
sieged, and  at  last  were  compelled  to  surrender  at  discretion. 
Those  who  bore  arms  were  inithlessly  imu-dered;  the  rest  dis- 
tributed among  the  confederates,  to  be  enslaved  or  massacred 
at  the  will  of  their  masters.  Cherished  as  the  loveliest  spot  in 
Canada,  the  possession  of  Detroit  secured  for  Quebec  a  great 
highway  to  the  upper  Indian  tribes  and  to  the  Mississippi. 

The  Tuscaroras  changed  their  dwelling-place  during  the 
war.  Their  chiefs  had  become  indignant  at  the  encroachments 
of  the  proprietaries  of  Can^lina,  who  had  assigned  their  lauds 
to  Palatines,  fugitives  from  the  banks  of  the  Xeckar  and  the 
Rhine.  De  Grafl^enried,  who  had  undertaken  the  establish- 
ment of  the  exiles,  accompanied  by  Lawson,  the  surveyor-gen- 
eral for  the  northern  province,  in  September  1711,  ascended 
the  Neuse  river,  to  discover  how  far  it  was  na-'ngable  and 
through  what  kind  of  country  it  flowed.  Seized  by  a  party 
of  sixty  well-armed  Indians,  they  were  taken  to  a  \illage  of 
the  Tuscaroras.  Before  a  council  of  the  principal  men  from 
various  towns  of  the  tribe,  complaint  Avas  made  of  the  conduct 
of  the  English  in  Cari.»lina,  au-d  Lawson.  who  with  his  compass 


f       i 


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|:i- 


<    I' 


204     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     part  m.;  on.  xii. 

and  eliiiiti  liad  marked  tlieir  territory  into  lotn  for  settlers,  was 
reproved  as  '^tlie  man  wlio  sold  tl'ieir  land."     After  a  discus- 
si(ni  of  two  days,  the  death  of  the  prisoners  was  decreed.    Tlio 
fire  was  kindled ;  the  ring  drawn  round  the  victims,  and  strown 
with  tlowi'rs.     On  the  morning  apjjointed  for  the  execution,  a 
council  assend)led  anew.     Round  the  white  men  sat  the  chiefs 
in  two  rows ;  behind  tliom  were  three  hundred  of  the  people, 
engaged  in  dances.      No  reprieve  was  granted   to   Lawson  ; 
but  Grailenried,  on  i)ledging  his  people  to  neutrality  and  prom- 
ising to  occupy  no  land  without  the  consent  of  the  tribe,  was 
suffered,  after  a  captivity  of  five  weeks,  to  return  through  the 
woods  on  foot.     lie  came  back  to  desolated  settlements!     On 
the  twenty-second  of  September,  small  bands  of  the  Tuscaroras 
and  Corees,  acting  in  concert,  approached  the  scattered  cabins 
along  the  Roanoke  and  Pandico  sound.     As  night  came  on,  a 
whoop  from  a  warrior  called  his  associates  from  the  woods,  to 
commence  the  indiscrindnate  carnage,  and  the  Palatines  en- 
countered a  foe  more  fierce  than  Lou  vols  and  Louis  XIV.    At 
Bath,  the  Huguenot  refugees,  and  the  planters  in  their  neigh- 
borhood, were  struck  down  by  aid  of  light  fn.m  their  own 
burning  cabius.     In   the   three  following  days   the  savages 
scoured  the  country  on  the  Albemarie  sound. 

Not  all  the  Tuscaroras  had  joined  in  the  conspiracy:  Spots- 
wood,  governor  of  Virginia,  sought  to  renew  with  them  an 
alliance ;  but,  as  the  burgesses  engaged  with  him  in  a  contest 
of  power,  no  effectual  aid  came  from  the  Old  Donunion.    The 
assembly  of  South  Carolina  promptly  voted  relief ;  and,  in  1712, 
defying  the  hardships  of  a  long  march  through  the  wilderness' 
Barnwell,  with  Cherokees,  Creeks,  Catawbas,  and  Yamassees 
as  allies,  led  a  small  detachment  of  militia  to  the  banks  of 
muse  river.     There,  in  the  upper  part  of  Craven  county,  the 
Indians  were  intrenched  in  a  rude  fort.     Tlie  fort  was  be- 
sieged ;  but  even  imminent  danger  had  not  roused  the  inhabi- 
tants of  North  Carolina  to  hannonious  action ;  they  retained 
their  hatred  for  the  rule  of  the  proprietaries,  and  Barnwell 
could  only  negotiate  with  the  Indians  a  treaty  of  jieace. 

The  troops  of  South  Carohna,  on  their  retuni,  themselves 
violated  the  treaty,  enslaving  inhabitants  of  villages  which 
should  have  been  safe  under  its  guarantees;  and  the  massacres 


n    P 


1712-1718.   THE  WAR  OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION. 


205 


ft  ."1 

1  \i 


on  Neuso  river  wore  renewed.  Tlio  province  was  inipovor- 
ishod,  the  peoplo  dissatistied  with  their  government ;  in  au- 
tumn, the  yellow  fever  raged  in  its  most  malignant  form ;  and 
the  country  south  of  Pamlico  sound  seemed  destined  to  be- 
come once  more  a  wilderness.  Ihit  Spotswood  succeeded  in 
dividing  the  Tuscaroras.  In  November  and  December,  large 
re-enforcements  of  Indians  from  South  Carolina  arrived,  with 
a  few  white  men,  under  James  Moore.  The  enemy  were  -pur- 
sued to  their  fort,  within  the  limits  of  the  present  Greene 
county,  on  the  Neuse;  and,  on  its  surrender,  in  March  1713, 
eight  hundred  became  captives.  The  legislature  of  North 
Carolina,  assembling  in  May,  under  a  new  governor,  issued  its 
first  l)ills  of  credit  to  the  amount  of  eight  thousand  pounds. 
"  The  very  i-efraetory  "  among  the  people  grew  zealous  to  sup- 
ply the  forces  .  "Ji  provisions;  the  enemy  were  chased  across 
the  lakes  and  swamps  of  Hyde  county ;  the  woods  were  })a- 
trolled  by  red  allies,  who  hunted  for  prisoners  to  be  sold  as 
slaves,  or  scalped  for  a  reward.  At  last,  the  hostile  part  of  the 
Tuscaroras  abandoned  their  old  hunting-grounds,  and,  mi  orat- 
ing to  the  \acinity  of  the  Oneida  lake,  were  received  by  their 
kindred,  the  Iroquois,  into  the  confederacy  of  the  Five  Nations. 
Their  humbled  aUies  were  established  as  a  single  settlement 
in  the  precincts  of  Hyde.  The  i)ower  of  the  natives  of  Noith 
Carolina  was  broken,  and  its  interior  made  safe  to  the  emigrant. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  preliminaries  of  a  treaty  had  been 
signed  between  France  and  England ;  and  the  war,  which  had 
grown  out  of  European  changes  and  convulsions,  was  suspended 
by  negotiations  that  were  soon  followed  by  the  uncei-tain  peace 
of  Utrecht. 

In  1700,  after  the  victories  of  Ramillies  and  of  Turin, 
France,  driven  from  its  outposts,  was  com])elled  to  straggle  for 
the  defence  of  its  own  soil.  The  aged  monarch  was  humbled 
in  arms,  reduced  in  power,  chagrined  by  the  decline  of  the 
prosperity  of  his  kingdom,  and  dejected  at  the  loss  of  foreign 
provinces.  Ills  children,  his  grandchildren,  all  but  one  infant, 
were  swept  away.  For  the  sake  of  peace,  he,  in  April  1709, 
oll'ered  to  ''  make  a  sacrilice  of  his  glory,"  and  assent  to  the  de- 
thronement of  his  grandson.  The  confederates  demanded  that 
he  shoidd  himself  expel  his  grandson  from  tlie  Spanish  throne. 


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206      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     i-ahtiii.;  on.  xn. 


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must  have  war,"  ho  answered,  "  it  nliall  not  bo  with  my 
children;"  and  ho  began  to  enliyt  on  liis  Hide  the  Hynipathies 
of  the  dl8i)!i8Hionato.  Krotn  tlie  banks  of  the  Dannbo,  the  Ta- 
gns,  and  the  Po,  hiw  armies  had  been  driven  back  into  his  own 
kin^r,],,,,,.  France  conhi  not  tlireaten  Englanfl  with  a  king,  or 
lloilaiid  witli  confinest,  or  tlie  emperor  with  rivalry  in  the  em- 
pire. The  party  of  peace  gnnv  every  (hiy.  Hesides,  the  arch- 
duke Charles,  whom  the  allies  had  proposed  as  king  of  Si)ain, 
was,  by  the  death  of  Joseph,  become  emperor.  If  the  eover- 
eign  over  the  Austrian  dominions,  and  head  of  the  empire, 
should  posfiesa  the  undivided  Spanish  monarchy,  the  days  of 
Charles  V.  would  return. 

The  debility  of  France  became  its  safety,  and  the  accumu- 
hited  power  of  the  archduke  was  the  prevailing  motive  for 
neglecting  his  claims.  Moreover,  success  in  arms  had,  in  1710, 
muler  the  auspices  of  the  victorious  Duke  do  Vendome  and 
with  the  applause  of  the  Spanish  nation,  conducted  Philip  Y., 
the  grandson  of  Louis  XIV.,  to  Madrid.  His  expulsion  was 
become  impossible.  In  England,  where  public  o])uiion  coidd 
reach  the  government,  the  tories  came  into  power  as  the  party 
of  ])eace.     Marlborough  was  dismissed. 

The  tr<\\ty  of  peace  concluded  at  Utrecht,  in  April  1713, 
closed  ^the  series  of  univereal  wars  f(»r  the  balance  of  power. 
The  Netherlands  were  the  barrier  against  French  encroach- 
ment ;  they  were  severed  from  S])ain,  and  assigned  to  Austria, 
as  the  second  land  power  on  the  continent.     The  house  of 
Savoy  was  raised  to  tlie  rank  of  royalty;  and  Sicily  at  first, 
afterward,  instead  of  Sicily,  the  island  of  Sardinia,  was  added 
to  its  sceptre.     The  kingdom  of  Naples,  at  first  divided  be- 
tween the  iionses  of  Savoy  and  Austria,  soon  became  nnited, 
and  was  constitnted  a  secundogeniture  of  Spain.     These  sub- 
ordinate changes  were  not  inconsistent  with  the  policy  of  the 
peace  of  Fti-echt,  and  were,  therefore,  at  a  later  day,  effected 
without  a  general  conflagration  of  Europe.     For  the  Calvinist 
family  of  the  Ilohenzolleni,  and  for  Savoy,  a  monarchy  was  es- 
tal)lished.  ^  The  balance  of  power,  so  far  as  France  and  Eng- 
land were  interested  on  the  continent,  was  arranged  in  a  manner 
that  might  have  permitted  between  the  two  neighbors  a  per- 
petual peace. 


1713.         THE  WAU  OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION. 


207 


Franco  asHCJited  to  tho  cinancipatioTv  of  Etifrlaiid  fr(»m  tho 
miLxiiiirt  of  legitiiiKicy,  and  not  oidy  rcco<,niis(!d  tho  ivi<riii„g 
queen,  but  tho  KUccesHion  to  tlio  crown,  as  voHted  in  the  Iiouho 
of  Hanover  by  act  of  parliament.  For  Spain,  it  compromised 
the  qtiestioM,  vindicating,'  the  right  of  Huceession  for  the  family 
of  the  HonrljoiiM,  but  agreeing  that  tho  two  crowiiH  HJiould 
never  bo  united.  On  the  other  liand,  Knghmd  took  no  interest 
in  any  (question  of  freedom  agitated  on  the  continent,  and 
never  In  a  Hingle  instance  asserted,  or  was  suspected  of  assert- 
ing, any  increase  of  popular  power.  It  faithlessly  abandoned 
Holland.  Its  faithful  allies,  the  (■atalonians,  had  maintained 
the  liberties  wliich  they  had  inherited  from  the  middle  age : 
the  Eourbons  abolished  them  in  punishment  of  a  people  which 
had  fought  with  England  ;  and,  in  the  treaty  of  peace,  Englaiul 
mocked  them  by  a  clause  which  promised  them  "  the  privileges 
of  Castile  "—that  k,  the  total  loss  of  their  own.  The  absolute 
monarchies  of  the  continent  had  no  dread  of  Great  Britain  as 
the  su])porter  in  arms  of  revolution.  The  princii)les  which 
were  springing  into  activity  on  the  borders  of  the  American 
wilderness  were  not  noticed ;  European  revolutions  and  Euro- 
pean wars  for  freedom  seemed  forever  at  an  end. 

And  yet  the  treaty  of  peace  at  Utrecht  scattered  tlie  seeds 
of  war  broadcast  throughout  the  globe.  The  world  had  en- 
tered on  the  pei'iod  of  mercantile  privilege.  Instead  of  estab- 
lishing e(pial  justice,  England  sought  commercial  advantages ; 
and,  as  the  mercantile  system  was  identitied  with  the  colonial 
system  of  the  great  mantime  powers  of  Europe,  the  political 
interest,  which  could  alone  kindle  universal  war,  was  to  be 
sought  in  the  colonies.  Hitherto,  they  had  been  subordinate 
to  European  politics :  henceforward,  the  question  of  trade  on 
om-  borders,  of  territory  on  our  frontier,  involved  an  interest 
which  could  rouse  the  world  to  anns.  Tho  interests  of  com- 
merce, under  the  narrow  \new  of  privilege  and  of  profit,  regu- 
lated diplomacy,  swayed  legislation,  and  marshalled  revolutions. 

First,  then,  by  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  Spain  lost  all  her  Eu- 
ropean provinces  and  retained  all  her  colonies.  The  mother 
country,  being  thus  left  with  a  population  of  but  six  or  seven 
millions,  had  no  strength  proportionate  to  the  vast  extent  of 
her  colonial  possessions.     She  held  them  not  by  physical  force. 


li 


,'■  ! 


ilV 


I 


I 


I 


208      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi. 


en.  XII. 


ti  H 


ii     -^^ 


but  by  the  power  of  established  interests,  usages,  and  religion. 
By  insisting  on  the  cession  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands  to 
Austria,  England  lost  its  only  hold  on  Spain  ;  and,  by  retain- 
ing Gibraltar,  made  her  its  implacable  enemy. 

Again,  by  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  Belgium  was  compelled  to 
forego  the  advantages  with  yvh'j'h  she  had  been  endowed  by 
the  God  of  nature  ;  to  gratify  connnercial  jealousy,  Antwerp 
was  denied  the  use  of  the  deep  waters  that  flowed  by  her 
Myalls ;  and  the  Austrian  efforts  at  trade  with  the  Eai^t  Indies 
were  suffocated  in  their  infancy.  This  policy  was  a  violation 
of  international  justice,  a  fraud  upon  humanity,  a  restriction, 
by  covenant,  of  national  industry  and  prosperity.  It  was  a 
pledge  that  Belgium  would  look  beyond  treaties,  and  grow 
familiar  with  natural  right. 

With  regard  to  France,  one  condition  of  the  treaty  was 
still  worse.  England  extorted  the  covenant  that  the  port  of 
Dunkirk  should  be  filled  up.  A  treaty  of  peace  contained  a 
stipulation  for  the  ruin  of  a  harbor ! 

On  the  opening  of  the  contest  with  France,  in  1G89,  Wil- 
liam III.,  thougli  bearing  the  standard  of  freedom,  was  false 
to  the  principle  of  the  liberty  of  the  seas,  prohibiting  to  for- 
eign nations  all  commerce  Avith  France  ;  and  to  the  protest  of 
Holland  ho  gave  no  other  reply  than  that  it  was  his  will,  and 
that  ho  had  power  to  make  it  good.     To  the  tory  ministry  of 
Queen  Anne  belongs  the  honor  of  having  inserted  in  the  trea- 
ties of  peace  a  principle  which,  but  for  England,  would  in 
that  generation  have  wanted  a  vindicator.     But  tnitli,  once 
elicited,  never  dies.     As  it  descends  through  time,  it  may  be 
transmitted  from  state  to   state,  from  monarch  to  connnon- 
wealth ;  but  its  light  is  never  extinguished,  and  never  falls  to 
the  ground.     A  great  truth,  if  no  existing  nation  would  tus- 
sume  its  guardianship,  has  power— such  is  God's  i^rovidence— 
to  call  a  people  into  being,  and  live  by  the  life  it  imparts. 
The  idea  which  Grotius  promulgated,  Bolingbroke  fostered 
and  England  kept  alive.     "  Free  ships,"  sucli  was  international 
law,  as  interpreted  by  England  at  Utrecht,  "  free  ships  shall 
also  give  a  freedom  to  goods."     The  name  of  contraband  was 
narrowly  defined,  and  the  right  of  blockade  severely  limited. 
Sailors,  ill  those  days.  ncc.hA  no  special  protections;  for  it 


1713.         THE  WAR  OF  THE  SPANISII  SUCCESSION. 


209 


was  covenanted  that,  witli  the  exception  of  soldiers  in  the 
actual  service  of  the  enemy,  the  flag  shall  protect  the  persons 
that  sail  under  it. 

The  English  government  had  always  cherished  most  warm- 
ly the  slave-trade  of  its  merchants,  giving  instructions  to  the 
governors  of  New  York  and  to  other  governors,  before  and 
diu-ing  the  war,  to  furnish  "  a  constant  and  sufficient  supply 
uf  merchantable  negroes."     Its  ambition,  capaeiuus  of  such 
schemes  for  tlie  enrichment  of  the  kingdom,  now  strove  not 
only  to  nil  British  colonies  with  slaves,  but  to  monopolize  the 
supply  of  Spanish  America ;  and  at  the  same  time  to  secure 
the  most  fa^'orable  opportunities  for  a  prolitable   smuggling 
trade.     The  assiento,  as  the  agreement  respecting  the  slave- 
trade  was  called,  was,  for  English  America,  tlie  most  weighty 
result  of  the  negotiations  at  Utrecht.     It  was  demanded  by 
Saint-John  in   1711;  and   Louis   XIY.   promised    his  good 
offices  to  obtain  it  for  the  English.     "  Her  Britannic  majesty 
d'd  offer  and  undertake,"  such  are  the  words  of  the  treaty, 
"  by  persons  wliom  she  shall  ai)poiut,  to  bring  into  the  West 
Indies  of  America  belonging  to  his  Catholic  majesty,  in  the 
space  of  thirty  years,  one  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand 
negroes,  at  the  rate  of  four  thousand  eight  hundred  in  each  of 
tlie  said  thirty  years,"  paying,  on  four  thousand  of  them,  a 
duty  of  tliirty-three  and  a  third  dollars  a  head.     The  assien- 
tists  might  introduce  as  many  more  as  they  ])leased,  at  the 
less  rate  of  duty  of  sixteen  and  two  thirds  dullars  a  head. 
Exactest  care  was  taken  to  secure  a  monopoly.     No  French- 
man, nor  Spaniard,  nor  any  other  persons,  might  introduce 
one  negro  slave  into  Spanish  America.     For  the  Spanish  world 
in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  on  the  Atlantic,  and  along  the  Pacitic, 
as  well  as  for  the  English  colonies,  her  Britannic  majesty,  by 
persons  of  her  appointment,  was  the  exclusive  slave-trader. 
England  extorted  the  privilege  of  filling  the  New  World  with 
negroes.    As  great  profits  were  anticipated  from  the  trade, 
Philip  Y.  of  Spain  took  one  quarter  of  the  common  stock, 
agreeing  to  pay  for  it  by  a  stock-note  ;  Queen  Anne  reserved 
to  herself  another  quarter ;  and  the  remaining  moiety  was  to 
be  divided  among  her  subjects.     The  sovereigns  of  England 
and  Spain  l)ecame  the  largest  slave-merchants  ever  knt)wn  in 

II.— 14 


TOL. 


1         !'     :       i 

1 
jf 
'i  ' 

'-'V 

i: : 


1   .'1 

1  ! 


I  i' 


1  :i 


'JIO      mUTISlI   AMKKMCA  FIIOM  inHH  'I'O  iriH.     i-mit  iii. 


<'II.   XII. 


IC    <|IU'('lfH 


till"  liisldiv  111'  (lio  wtii'Id.  Liidy  MiiHliiini  iirdiniHcd  licrHi'll"  ii, 
sliiii't'  of  (li(>  |>r(ilil.4;  hilt  Hurley,  w'a)  lind  <;<hmI  simiwi  iukI  whh 
inosl  iVtM'  IVuiii  MViiricc,  iid  vised  (lie  iisMifj^niiiciil  of  1 1 

porlioll   (>r  lll(>  Midck    to   lIlC  Soudi   St'i)   ('Olll|t!IIlV. 

('(till nil! in;.!;  tlic  Inidc  in  kImvcm,  who  cost  iiotliiiiff  hiil,  Irink- 
<<ls  Mild  (i>vs  Mild  n>riis(<  Mnns,  l']ii|n;lMiid  {^Milled,  hy  Ihc  sale  dl' 
(litM'liildnMi  dl"  AlricM  into  hondMp'  in  AnicricM,  llu<  <'M|)itiil 
wliicli  conliniHMl  m  Hritish  (Miipirc  in  IlindoMlMii.  The  pdlili- 
cm!  t'tl'ccts  dl"  this  IrMHic  wen"  (-(|iiMlly  |>(>n'(>|»tihlc  in  llit^  West 
Indies.  Tlid  nu'rcMiitiit'  HV.stdiu  ol'  nionopoly,  (d'  which  Iho 
i'oldiiiMl  syslnii  WMs  llif  ('.sscntiMi  hrMUcli,  ('iiliuiiiMlcd  in  tlin 
hImv(>  ti'Mdc,  Mild  tluM'omnu'rciid  policv  udopliMl  wilii  rcijjMrd  to 
(he  ('hi(>r  |>rodii('t'  ol'  Mlnvedidxir.  TIk"  HtntcsiiuMi  who  h(d'ri(>n(|- 
rd  tlu<  r«'s(ri(li\(<  s_vst»Mii  siiowi'd  tlu'ir  hii:;hi>st  favdr  to  tlu- 
8ii};iu'  colonic.'*. 


{''iirthcr,  lMii;'lMiid,  t!;ii!ii-(linti^  with  lh(>  utmost  stri('tn(>Hrt  tl 
uidiio])(>ly  oi"   her  own  coh  niMi   ti'Milc.  t'licroMchcd  l>y  trc:dy 


10 


on 


i 


the  coloniMi  monopoly  ol"  SpMin.  There  sIimII  he  trM(K',  it  was 
8!iid,  h(>t\\(>en  (ir(>nt  HntMin  nnd  SpMin,  miuI  thi'ir  respeclivu  plaii- 
tations  Mild  provinci>s,  "  wher(>  hitherto  trade  and  conunercc 
havt>  heeu  Mecustomcd;"  so  that  m  pri'scriptive  rio;ht  miy^ht 
spriiii;- from  the  <'ontiiui(>d  successes  of  Hritish  smu;;'i;lcrs.  15c- 
sid»\s,  ji.s  l']np;laiid  piined  the  assiento,  it  was  aj^reed  that  the 
ajX<''ds  of  the  assicntists  iniu'ht  enter  all  the  ports  of  SpMiiish 
AiiuM-icM;  miii'ht  send  their  I'Mctors  into  inland  ]>laces;  mij;-lit, 
(ov  their  own  supplies,  establish  w  ,in>housi>s.  sMt'e  a;L;'ain8t  .search 
until  after  proof  id"  fiMudulent  importations;  mii^ht  send  year- 
ly a  ship  of  live  ImndnHl  tons,  laden  with  nu>rcliandise,  io  he 
entered  fret'  o\'  all  duties  in  the  liKiies,  and  to  he  sold  at  the 
annual  tair;  luiulit  siMid  tlu'  retnrr.s  of  this  trMtlic,  whether 
bars  oi  sil\i>r,  ino-ols  o(  gold,  or  tlie  produce  o\'  the  country, 
diivctly  to  I'lurope  in  |]ui;:lisli  vessels.  The  hope  was  further 
oxpresscil  that,  from  I'airojH'  and  the  North  American  colonics, 
diivct  suppliis  mio-ht  be  f'urnished  to  the  assicntists  in  small 
vessels;  (hat  is.  in  vessels  titled  toeuij;at;e  in  smuir.irlinix.  Here 
lay  the  seeds  (>f  war:  the  ixreat  colonial  monopolists  weiv  di- 
vitled  Mirainst  eaclit»ther;  and  Kuijland  souixht  to  enii;ros8,  if 
]vvssible,  every  advautairtv  Many  were  the  consctiuences  to  our 
fallui's  iroiii  fiicse  enciiMcimients  ;   Ihi'V  opened  trade  between 


171.'(.  TIIK    WAR   OF  TIIE   8PANISH   SUCGESHION. 


211 


our  colorticH  :m(l  fli<(  SpiuiiHli  isljuidH  ;  tlioy  Htiinuliitwl  En<rl!uid 
to  ;i<,^H;rcHHi()iis  till  Spiiiti  hdciuiics  willitifr  to  kch;  tli(!  frroat  colo- 
nial HyKl(!in  iiiiiKiirud,  if  l)y  t,li;it  iricaiis  slu;  could  revfii''c  lior- 


sci 


oil  Miiji,'l;iii(l 


Finally,  Kn^^diiiid,  hy  Mic  pi-iicc!  of  llf.reclif,,  obtiiiiicd  from 
I'Vaiicc  \:\vff\  coiicc'SHioiis  of  territory  in  Americiu  The  iisHtiiu- 
hly  of  New  ^'oik  Imd  iKMrcsscd  the  ([lUicii  ii<i;iiiiist  Fniiich  Kut- 
tlciiicnls  in  tho  West;  William  I'cim  advised  to  establish  die 
St.  i.awriMice  as  the  Itomidary  on  the  north,  and  to  iiKihide  in 
our  colonies  the  valh^y  of  the  Mississippi.  It  "■  will  make  a 
-glorious  country  :  "  such  were  his  ])rophetic  words.  Spotswood, 
of  Vir;;iiiia  a<i;aiii  and  a^^viin  <lirected  tho  attention  of  the  Eng- 
lish ministry  to  the  progress  of  the  Fniiich  in  the  West.  The 
c(tlony  of  liOiiisiana  excited  in  Saint-John  "  apprehensions  of 
the  future  undertakings  of  the  I^'rench  in  North  America." 
Tiie  occupation  of  the  Mississippi  valley  had  l)ecn  proposed  to 
(^iiccn  Anne  ;  yv.i,  at  the  peaco,  that  immense  region  remained 
to  France.  I'.nt  England  ohtained  the  bay  of  irndson  and  its 
hordcrs;  Newfoundland,  subject  to  the  rights  of  France  in  its 
lislicricM:  and  all  Nova  Scotia,  or  Acadia,  according  to  its  an- 
cient boundaries.  It  was  agreed  that  "  France  should  never 
molest  tho  Five  Nations  subject  to  llie  dominion  of  (Jreat 
I'ritain.'"  I'ut  Louisiana,  according  to  Frencb  ideas,  included 
both  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  Did  the  treaty  of  Utrecht 
iisscut  to  such  an  extiMision  of  French  territory?  And  wbat 
were  the  ancient  limits  of  Acadia'?  Did  it  include  all  that  is 
now  New  Brunswick?  or  had  France  still  a  large  territory  on 
flic  Atlantic  between  Acadia  and  Maine?  And  what  were  the 
hounds  of  the  territory  of  the  Five  Nations,  which  the  treaty 
nppi'ared  to  recognise  as  a  part  of  the  English  dominions? 
These  wi'iv  (jueslioiis  which  were  never  to  he  ad  justed  amicablv. 


ij\ 

H' 

212    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    I'aet  hi.  ;  cii.  xm. 


CHAPTER  XIIL 


OF   THE   BOUND^VEIES  OF    BEITISII 


FEENCIIj   AND    SPANISH    COLO- 


NIES. 


Ir.'l    I  II 


In  August  1714,  the  Louse  of  Hanover  ascended  the  Eng- 
lish throne,  an  event  doubly  grateful  to  the  colonies.  The  con- 
test of  parties  is  the  struggle  between  ideas ;  and  the  abiding 
sympathy  of  nations  is  never  won  but  by  the  support  of  the 
regenerating  principles  of  the  age.  George  I.  had  imprisoned 
his  wife  ;  had,  from  jealousy,  caused  a  young  man  to  be  assassi- 
nated ;  had  had  frequent  and  angry  quarrels  with  his  son ;  and 
now,  being  fifty-three  years  old,  attended  by  two  women  of  the 
Hanoverian  aristocracy,  who  were  jiroud  of  beuig  known  as 
his  mistresses,  he  crossed  the  sea  to  become  tlie  sovereign  of  a 
comitry  of  Avliich  he  understood  neither  the  institutions,  the 
manners,  nor  the  language.  Intrusting  the  administration  to 
the  whigs,  he  avowed  his  purpose  of  limiting  his  favor  to 
them,  as  though  he  were  himself  a  member  of  their  party ;  and 
in  return,  by  a  complaisant  ministry,  places  in  the  liighest 
ranks  of  the  English  aristocracy  were  secured  to  his  mistresses. 
And  yet  throughout  English  America  even  the  clergy  herald- 
ed the  elevation  of  George  I.  as  an  omen  of  happiness  ;  and  it 
was  announced  from  the  pulpit  of  Boston  that,  in  the  whole 
land,  "  not  a  dog  can  wag  his  tongue  to  charge  them  with  dis- 
loyalty.'^ To  the  children  of  the  Puritans,  the  accession  of 
the  house  of  Hanover  was  the  triumph  of  Protestantism,  and 
the  guarantee  of  cival  liberty. 

Louis  Xiy.  had  outlived  his  children  and  every  grandchild, 
except  the  king  of  Spain,  "  My  child,"  said  he,  in  August  1715, 
as  he  gave  a  farewell  blessing  to  his  great-grandson,  the  boy  of 
five  years  old  who  was  to  be  his  successor,  "  you  will  be  a  gj'cat 


1715. 


BOUNDARIES  OF  COLOXIES. 


213 


king ;  do  not  imitate  nic  in  my  passion  for  war ;  seek  peace 
^^tll  your  neighbors,  and  strive  to  be,  wlaat  I  have  failed  to  be, 
a  solace  to  your  people."  On  tlie  first  of  September  1715,  he 
died,  but  the  peace  which  two  years  before  he  had  conchided 
with  EngLmd  remained  unbroken  for  forty  years.  His  neph- 
ew, the  brave,  generous,  but  abandoned  Pliilip  of  Orleans,  be- 
came absolute  regent.  The  French  minister  Torcy,  the  gifted 
son  of  Colbert,  was  supplanted,  and,  by  the  influence  of  Prot- 
estant England,  the  recklessly  immoral  Du  Bois,  thrice  infa- 
mous, as  the  corrupter  of  his  pupil,  as  the  licentious  priest  of 
a  spiritual  religion,  and  as  a  statesman  in  the  pay  of  a  foreign 
country,  became  cardinal,  the  successor  of  Fenelon  in  an  arch- 
bishopric, and  prime  minister  of  France.  On  his  death  in 
1723,  Floury  entered  the  privy  coimcil,  and,  in  January  172(1, 
at  seventy-throe  years  of  age,  he  became  the  chief  minister 
of  the  king  of  France,  with  the  rank  of  cardinal,  and  held  the 
office  until  las  death  in  January  1743.  The  wise  cardinal  had 
a  discriminating  and  candid  mind.  The  preservation  of  peace 
was  his  rule  of  administration ;  and  he  was  the  chosen  medi- 
ator between  conflicting  sovereigns.  He  clearly  foresaw  im- 
pending revolutions,  but  succeeded  in  hushing  the  storm  until 
his  judgment  sank  beneath  the  infirmities  of  fourscore.  Un- 
der such  ausjnces  peace  was  secured  to  the  colonies  of  rival 
nations. 

On  the  accession  of  George  I.,  Sir  Eobert  Walpole  entered 
the  British  ministry,  and,  in  the  course  of  1715,  became  the 
first  lord  of  the  treasury  and  c'  ncellor  of  the  exchequer. 
From  this  post  he  retired  in  1717,  but  only  to  resume  it  in 
1720,  and  to  retain  it  for  more  than  twonty-one  years.  His 
cliaractor  was  a  pledge  of  moderation.  Ignorant  of  theories, 
not  familiar  ^^^tll  the  history  or  politics  of  foreign  nations,  he 
was  an  adept  in  worldly  wisdom.  Though  destitute  of  fortune 
or  alliances,  he  gradually  engrossed  power,  and  exercised  it 
temperately.  Jovial  and  placable  and  always  hopeful,  he 
never  distnisted  his  policy  or  himself.  He  could  endure  no 
rival  and  sought  friends  among  his  inferiors ;  nor  could  any 
person  of  high  pretension  long  continue  to  act  ^vith  him. 
His  pleasures  degenerated  into  coarse  licentiousness,  and  he 
was  not  indifferent  to  the  display  of  nuigniiicence.     In  the 


> 

11^ 


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■  '■ 

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/    HSI 


214    BRITISU  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.     paet  hi.  ;  en.  xm. 

employmeut  of  means,  Jio  "  plunged  to  the  elbows  in  corrup- 
tion." Ills  strength  lay  in  his  policy  of  promoting  the  com- 
merce and  manufactures  of  his  country  and  diminisliing  its 
debt.  Never  palliating  his  conduct,  and  caring  oidy  for  ma- 
jorities, trading  for  numbers  and  not  for  talents  or  for  appear- 
ances, he  followed  honesty  more  than  he  professed  to  do. 
He  did  not  cornipt  others;  he  did  but  buy  the  service  of 
the  comipt.  The  house  of  commons  was  his  avenue  to 
power  ;  and  his  though' ..  v.  eve  engrossed  by  intrigues  for  its 
control. 

llapi^y  period  for  the  colonies!  For  a  little  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  the  controversies  of  Great  Britain  and 
France  respecting  colonial  boundaries  could  not  occasion  the 
outbreak  of  a  war. 

South  Carolina  had  become  the  centre  of  an  Indian  traffic, 
which  the  prospect  of  continued  peace  extended  fr^m  Cape 
Fear  to  the  country  beyond  the  Savannah,  from  Mobile  river 
to  the  Natchez.  The  tribes  among  which  the  traders  had 
tlieir  storehouses  had  been  regarded  as  "  a  tame  and  peace- 
al)le  iieople ; "  they  were  very  largely  in  debt  for  the  advances 
which  had  been  made  them ;  and  "  the  traders  began  to  be 
hard  upon  them,  because  they  would  be  paid."  As  a  conse- 
quence, Indian  tribes  from  Mobile  river  to  Cape  Fear  were  in 
conunoti(jn.  A  rising  was  resolved  on  by  the  Yamassees  with 
such  support  as  they  could  gain  from  the  Uchees  and  the 
Creeks.  On  the  morning  of  Good  Friday  1715,  an  indis- 
criminate massacre  of  the  Englisli  l)egan.  The  bands  of  the 
enemy,  hiding  by  day  in  the  swamps,  and  by  night  attack- 
ing the  scattered  settlements,  drove  the  planters  towai-d  the 
capital.    Charleston  itself  was  in  peril. 

But  the  impulse  of  wild  passion  could  not  prevail  against 
the  deliberate  courage  of  civilized  man.  On  the  north,  the 
insulated  band  of  invaders  received  a  check,  and  vanished  into 
the  forests  ;  on  the  south,  Charles  Craven,  the  governor  of  the 
province,  promptly  led  the  militia  of  Colleton  district  to  a  linal 
conflict  with  the  confederated  wan-iors  on  the  banks  of  the 
Salke-hachie.  The  savages  fought  long  and  desperately  ;  but 
they  Avere  driven  out  of  the  proWnce.  When  Craven  returned 
to  Charleston,  he  Avas  greeted  with  the  applause  which  his 


1715-1780. 


BOUNDARIES  OF  COLONIES. 


215 


alacrity,  courage,  and  conduct  merited.     TLe  colony  lost  about 
four  hundred  of  its  inhabitants. 

South  Carolina  had  been  defended  by  its  own  people  alone ; 
and  they  resolved,  inider  th(}  sovereignty  of  the  English  mon- 
arch, to  govern  themselves.  Scalping-parties,  from  their  places 
of  refuge  in  Florida,  continued  to  liover  on  the  frontiers  ;  and 
the  proprietaries  took  no  efficient  measures  for  protecting  their 
colony.  They  monopolized  the  lands  which  they  had  not  con- 
tributed to  def^;  .1.  They  negatived  judicious  revenue  laws. 
The  polls  for  the  election  of  representatives  had  hitherto  been 
held  for  the  whole  province  at  Charieston;  the  legislature 
authorized  the  votes  to  be  taken  in  each  parish ;  but  this  was 
negatived.  Members  of  the  proprietary  council  who,  by  long 
residence,  became  attached  to  their  new  country,  were  sup- 
planted or  outweighed  by  an  abrupt  increase  of  the  number 
of  councillors.  In  consequence,  at  the  next  election  of  assem- 
bly, though  it  was  chosen  at  Charleston,  not  one  friend  of  the 
proprietaries  was  returned.  The  members  elect,  at  private 
meetings,  "  resolved  to  have  no  more  to  do  with  the  proprie- 
tors;" and  the  people  of  the  province  entered  "into  an  asso- 
ciation to  stand  by  their  rights  and  privileges."  The  assem- 
l)ly,  in  November  ITIO,  resolved  "  to  have  no  regard  to  the 
officers  of  the  proprietaries  or  to  their  administration,"  and 
begged  Eobert  Johnson,  the  governor,  "  to  hold  the  reins  of 
government  for  the  king."  When  Johnson  rejected  their  offer, 
they,  with  Arthur  ]VIiddleton  for  their  president,  voted  them- 
selves "  a  convention  delegated  by  the  people ; "  and,  resolved 
"  on  luu'ing  a  governor  of  their  own  choosing,"  they  elected 
James  ]\Ioore,  "  whom  all  the  coimtry  had  allowed  to  be  the 
fittest  person"  for  undertaking  its  defence.  The  militia  of 
Charleston  was  to  be  reviewed  on  the  twenty-first  of  Decem- 
ber ;  and  that  occasion  was  selected  for  proclaiming  the  new 
chief  magistrate.  To  Parris,  the  commanding  officei,  Johnson 
issued  particular  orders  to  delay  the  muster,  nor  sutler  a  drum 
to  be  beaten  in  the  town.  But,  on  the  api-  inted  day,  with 
colors  flying  at  the  forts  and  on  all  the  suips  in  the  harbor, 
the  militia  drew  up  in  the  public  square.  In  the  king's  name, 
Johnson  connuanded  Parris  to  disperse  his  men ;  and  Parris 
answered :  "  I  obey  the  convention."     "  The  revolutiouers  had 


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21(1    UniTISIl  AMKIilOA  FltONf  1088  TO  1748. 


TAUT  in.;  (!ii.  xiii. 


their  governor,  council,  and  convention,  and  all  of  their  ovn\ 
free  eliM'tion." 

The  :i<::('nf.  from  ('iiroii'ia,  in  1 720,  o])tiiine<l  in  Enj^land  a 
ready  hearing'  from  the  lords  of  the  re^^ency.  The  proprietorn 
were  esteiMued  to  have  forfeited  their  charter ;  nieaHnre.s  were 
taken  for  its  ahro<i;ation  ;  and,  in  the  mean  time,  Francis  Nich- 
olson— trained  to  the  direction  of  colonial  governments,  hy  ex- 
perience in  Ntnv  York,  in  Virginia,  in  Marylitnd— received  a 
royal  commission  as  provisional  governor  of  the  province. 
The  hohl  act  of  the  jn'oph^  of  (Carolina,  which  in  England 
was  rcfljx'cted  as  an  evidence  of  loyalty,  mm  remetnhered  in 
America  a.s  ati  exami)le. 

In  1721,  the  tirst  act  of  Nicholson  conh'rmed  peace  with  the 
natives.  On  the  horder  of  the  (Mion.kees  he  was  met,  in  con- 
gress, hy  the  chiefs  of  thirty-seven  dilVerent  villages.  They 
smoked  with  him  the  calumet,  aiid  marked  the  houndaries 
between  "the  beloved  nation"  and  the  colonists;  and  they 
returned  to  their  homes  in  the  mountain  vales,  pleased  with 
their  generous  brother  and  new  v\,.  A  treaty  of  commerce 
was  concluded  with  the  Creeks,  whose  hunting-grounds  it  was 
soleuudy  agreed  should  extend  to  the  Savannah.  Yl..  Ejiglish 
and)ition  was  not  bounded  by  that  river;  in  defiance  of  remon- 
strances from  Spain,  a  small  I'aiglish  fort  was  maintained  on 
the  forks  of  the  Alatamaha. 

In  September  1721),  under  the  sanction  of  an  act  of  parlia- 
ment, and  for  the  sum  t)f  twenty -two  thousand  five  hundred 
pounds,  seven  eighths  of  the  proprietaries  sold  to  the  crown 
thei«-  tei-ritoiT,  powei-s  of  jurisdiction  and  arrears  oi  (piit-rcnts. 
Lord  Carteret  alone,  joining  in  the  surreiider  of  the  goveni- 
meut,  reserved  an  eighth  share  in  tlie  soil.  Then  it  was  that  a 
royal  governor  was  first  known  in  North  Carolina.  Its  secluded 
hamlets  had  not  imitated  the  popular  revolution  of  tlie  southern 
province. 

So  soon  as  the  royal  government  was  coniinned,  it  at- 
tempted, by  treaties  of  union,  to  convert  the  Indians  on  the 
l)or(lers  of  Carolina  into  allies  or  subjects;  and,  early  in  1730, 
Sir  Alexander  Cumnung,  a  special  envoy,  guided  by  Indian 
traders  to  Keowet .  sunnuoned  a  general  tissendtly  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  Chorokees  to  meet  at  Nequassee,  in  the  valley  of  the 


1713-1721. 


nOTTNDARIES  OF  COLONIES. 


217 


Tl'mioskco.  Tlioy  ciiiue  togotlicr  in  tlio  iiioiitli  of  April,  and 
wvvc  told  tliiit  Kin<,'  Goor^^o  was  tlioir  Hovcrei^m.  Wlieii  thcj 
(.irorcd  a('liiii)Ict,  foursciilpsof  tlioir  cneniies  and  five  ea<,'lc'8' 
tails,  as  tlio  record  of  the  treaty,  it  waa  proposed  to  tlieiu  to 
send  deputies  to  England  ;  and  tlieir  assent  was  interi)reted 
as  an  act  of  liorna<,'o  to  the  liritisli  monarcli.  In  En<rlaiid,  a 
treaty  of  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  was  siojiecfhy  tlic 
iiiiMie  and  seal  of  ojie  party,  by  the  eiublenis  and  marks  of  the 
other.  No  white  men,  except  the  English,  might  Imild  cabins 
or  plant  com  upon  the  lands  of  the  C'herokees,  who  in  this  way 
were  constituted  a  barrier  against  the  French.  The  seven  en- 
voys fi-oni  the  mountains  of  Tennessee,  bewildei-ed  at  the  vast- 
ncss  of  London  and  the  splendor  and  discipline  of  the  Eritisli 
army,  were  presented  at  court ;  and,  when  in  September  the 
king  claimed  their  land  and  all  the  countiy  about  them  as  his 
property,  sm-prise  and  inadvertence  extorted  from  one  of  their 
war-chiefs  the  irrevocable  answer,  "  To-cu-hah''—\i  is  "a  most 
certain  truth  "—and  tlie  delivery  of  eagles'  feathers  contirmed 
Lis  words.  The  covenant  promised  that  love  should  flow  for- 
ever like  the  rivers,  that  i)eaco  should  endure  like  the  moun- 
tains ;  and  it  was  faithfully  kept  for  one  generation. 

The  treaty  of  Utrecht  sui-rcnulered  to  England  Acadia 
"  with  its  ancient  boundaries."  J  )isputes  were  to  arise  respect- 
ing them ;  but  even  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  province  of 
]\rassachusett8  was  not  vindicated  without  a  contest.  To  the 
country  between  the  Kennebec  and  the  St.  Croix  a  new  claim- 
ant appeared  in  the  Abenakis  themselves.  In  1710,  the  gen- 
er;il  court  extended  its  jurisdiction  to  the  utmost  boimds  of  the 
province;  the  fishermen  aTid  the  traders  of  New  England  not 
only  revived  the  villages  that  had  been  desolated  dunng  the 
war,  but,  on  the  eastern  bardv  of  the  Kennebec,  laid  the  foun- 
dation of  new  settlements,  and  jn-otected  them  by  forts. 
^  The  red  men  became  alarmed.  Away  went  their  chiefs,  in 
1717,  across  the  forests  to  Quebec,  to  ask  if  France  had  indeed 
surrendered  the  country,  of  which  they  themselves  were  the 
riglitful  lords ;  and,  as  Vaudreuil  answered  that  the  French 
treaty  witli  tlie  English  made  no  mention  of  their  country, 
their  chief  resisted  the  claim  of  the  govenunent  of  Massachu- 
setts.   "  I  have  my  land,"  said  he,  "  where  the  Great  Spirit  lias 


M 

"^^ 

^^P^f^ 

H 

^  Hi 

^1 

'   1' 

^V 

^^^1 

1 

1 

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218    imiTlSll  AMi:UICA  l-HOM  lOHB  TO  1748.    i>Ai:Tin.;  nr.  xm. 


! :  H 


!K  ;  'i! 


placed  me;  uikI,  \vhil(3  there  renmlns  one  child  of  my  tribe,  I 
hIkiH  li^^ht  to  preserve  it."     France  could  not  maintain  its  in- 
flneiice  hy  an  (.pen  alliance,  Init  its  missionaries  ^niided  their 
converts.     At  i\ornd.t!;e\Vdck,  on  the  l)aid<s  of  the  Keimebec, 
Sebastian  Kasles,  for  more  than  a  (juarter  of  a  centnry  the  com- 
panion and   instrnctor  of  savaufes,  liad  gathered  a  ilonrislihig 
villa<fe  ronnd  a  church  which,  rising  in  the  desert,  made  some 
jtretensioiis  U)  ma«^niticence.     Severely  ascetic,  nsing  no  wine 
and  little  food  except  pounded  maize,  a  rigorous  observer  of 
the  days  of  Lent,  he  built  his  own  cabin,  tilled  his  own  garden, 
drew  for  himself  wood  and  water,  prepared  his  own  hominy, 
and,  distribnting  all  that  he  received,  gave  an  e.\am])le  of  re- 
ligions ])overty.     Himself  a  i)ainter,  he  adorned  the  Immblo 
walls  of  ills  chnrch   with   pictures.      There  he  gave  histnic- 
tion  almost  daily.    Following  his  pupils  to  their  wigwams,  ho 
tempered  the  s])irit  of  devotion  with  familiar  conversation  and 
innocent  gayety,  wimung  the  mastery  over  their  souls  hy 
his  powers  of  persuasion.     He  had  trained  a  band  of  forty 
young  savages,  arrayed  in  cassock  and  surplice,  to  assist  in 
the  service  and  chant  the  liynms  of  the  church;  and  their 
public  processions  attracted  a  concourse  of  red  men.     Two 
chai)els  were  built  near  the  village,  and  before  them  the  hunter 
muttered  his  prayers,  on  his  way  to  the  river  or  the  woods. 
When  the  tribe  descended  to  the  seaside,  in  the  season  of  wild 
fowl,  they  were  followed  l)y  Rasles;  and  on  some  islet  a  little 
chapel  of  bark  was  (juickly  consecrated. 

In  1717,  the  government  of  jMassachu  setts  attempted,  in 
tuni,  to  cstahhsh  a  mission  ;  and  its  minister  made  a  mocldng 
of  purgatory  and  the  invocation  of  saints,  of  the  cross  and  the 


rosary, 


M, 


'stians,"  retorted  Rasles,  "  believe  the  truths 
of  the  Cathol  .ith,  but  are  not  skilful  disputants  ;"  and  ho 
prepared  a  d  xonce  of  the  Roman  church. 

Several  chiefs  had,  by  stratagem,  lieen  seized  by  the  New 
England  government,  and  were  detained  as  hostages.  For 
their  liberty  a  stipulated  ransom  had  been  i)aid ;  and  still  they 
were  not  free.  The  Abenakis,  in  1721,  demanded  that  tlieir 
territory  should  be  evacuated,  and  the  imprisoned  warriors  de- 
livered u]).  or  reprisals  would  follow.  Instead  of  ne<>-otiating, 
the  English  seized  the  young  Laron  de  Saint-Castin,  a  half- 


1721-1725. 


BOUNDARIES   OF  COLONIES. 


219 


l)recd,  who  at  onco  lield  a  French  commission  and  was  an  In- 
dian war-ciiiof ;  and,  after  vainly  solieitiiiir  tiie  s'.iva^'es  to  sur- 
render Rasles,  ill  .lanuarj  1722,  Westhrooko  led  a  Btron^^  force 
to  Noi-ridijewock  to  take  liim  by  surprise.  The  warriors  were 
absent  in  tiie  eliase ;  the  Jesuit  liad  suflieient  warning  to  es- 
cape, with  the  old  men  and  tlie  intirni,  into  the  forest;  and 
the  invaders  gained  notliing  but  his  [)apers.  Tiiese  were 
iuiportimt;  for  the  correspondence  with  Vaudreuil  proved  a 
latent  hope  of  establishing  the  ])ower  of  France  on  the  At- 
lantic. There  was  found,  moreover,  a  vocabulary  of  the  Abe- 
naki language,  which  the  missionary  had  com])iIed,  and  which 
has  been  i)reserved  to  this  day. 

On  returnhig  from  the  chase,  the  Indians,  after  planting 
their  grounds,  resolved  to  destroy  the  English  settlements  on 
the  Kennebec.  They  sent  deputies  to  carry  the  hatchet  and 
chant  the  war-song  among  the  llurons  of  Quebec  and  in  every 
village  of  the  Abenakis.  The  work  of  destruction  began  by 
the  burning  of  lirunswick. 

Ragles  clearly  perceived  that,  "■  unless  the  French  should 
join  "  with  the  red  men,  the  land  would  be  lost.  At  his  bid- 
ding, many  of  his  Hock  retired  to  Canada;  but,  to  their  earnest 
solicitations  that  he  M'ould  share  their  flight,  the  aged  man, 
foreseeing  the  impending  ruin  of  Xorridgewock,  replied :  "  I 
count  not  my  life  dear  unto  myself,  so  I  may  linish  with  joy 
the  ministry  which  I  have  received," 

The  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  by  resolution,  in  July 
1722,  declared  the  eastern  Indians  to  be  traitors  and  robbers ; 
and,  while  troops  were  raised  for  the  war,  offered  jn-iviite 
men  for  each  Indian  scalp  at  first  a  bounty  of  fifteen  pountis, 
and  afterward  of  a  hundred. 

Th-  -expedition  to  Penobscot,  in  1723,  was  under  public  aus- 
pices. After  live  days'  march  through  the  woods,  Westbrooke, 
with  his  company,  came  upon  the  Indian  settlement,  that  was 
probably  above  Bangor,  at  ( )1(1  Town.  He  found  a  fort,  seventy 
yards  long  and  lifty  in  breadth,  well  protected  by  stockades, 
fourteen  feet  high,  enclosing  twenty-three  houses  regularly 
built.  On  the  south  side,  near  at  hand,  was  the  chapel,  sixty 
feet  long  and  thirty  wide,  well  and  handsomely  furnished  with- 
hi  and  without ;  and  south  of  this  stood  the  "  friar's  dwelHno-. 


M 


li 


I 


*i 


!i     :    I 


t;i 


i:\  \ 


m 


220    lUJITlSII  AMHFMCA  FUOM   KIHH  TO  'JIH.     i'Ai:riii. ;  cii.  xiii. 

house.'"  Tlio  iiivadiTH  nrriviMl  tlioro  on  the  ninth  of  Marcli 
172;{,  at  six  in  the  evoninn;.  That  ni^ht  they  set  fire  to  tlju  vil- 
ia/jjc,  and  hy  Kunrise  next  nioniinf;'  every  huii<h'n;;  was  in  aslies. 

Twice  it  was  attempted  in  vain  ..)  capture  Kasles.  At  last, 
on  the  twenty-tiiird  of  Aujjjust  17*Jl,  a  party  from  New  Kn<^- 
hmd  reached  Norrid<^ewock  uni)erci'ived  till  they  discharged 
tlieir  jifuna  at  the  cabins.  There  were  about  fifty  warriors  in 
the  place.  They  seized  their  arms  and  marched  forth  tinnultu- 
ously  to  protect  the  flight  of  their  wives  and  children  and 
old  men.  llasles,  rr>used  to  the  daiiji^(>r  hy  their  clamors,  went 
forward  to  save  his  Hock  hy  drawinj^  down  upnii  himself  the 
attention  of  the  assailants  ;  and  his  h(»pe  was  not  vain.  Mean- 
time, the  savages  tied  to  the  river,  whicli  they  passed  hy  wading 
and  swimming,  while  the  English  pillaged  the  cabins  and  the 
church,  and  then  set  them  on  fir(>. 

Ai'li  r  the  retrt'at  of  tlu'  invaders,  the  red  men  returned  to 
nurse  their  wounded  and  inter  their  (lea<l.  They  buried  llasles 
beneath  the  spot  where  lie  used  to  stand  before  the  altar.  The 
most  noted  of  the  Catholic  missionaries  in  New  England,  ho 
was  in  his  sixty-seventh  year,  and  had  been  thii-ty-seveu  years 
in  the  service  of  ihe  church  in  America.  He  knew  several  dia- 
lects of  the  Algonkin,  and  had  bei'u  as  a  missionary  among  va- 
rious tribes  from  tiie  ocean  to  the  Mississippi.  In  1721,  Fatlicr 
de  la  Chasse  had  advised  his  return  to  C-anada.  "  Clod  has 
intrusted  to  me  this  Hock,"  was  his  answer;  "T  shall  fol- 
low its  fortunes,  ha])py  to  be  innnolated  for  its  benelit."  In 
New  England,  he  was  regarded  as  the  leader  of  the  insurgent 
Indians  ;  the  l)relhren  of  his  order  mourned  for  him  as  a  mar- 
tyr and  a  saint. 

The  overthrow  of  the  missions  completed  the  ruin  of  French 
influence.  The  pjiglish  themselves  had  grown  skilful  in  the 
Indian  mode  of  warfare;  and  no  war-])ai'ties  of  the  red  men 
ever  displayed  more  address  or  heroism  than  the  brave  John 
Lovewell  aiul  hiw  companions.  Ilis  volunteer  associates  twice 
returned  laden  witi^  scalps.  On  a  third  expedition,  in  April 
1725,  falling  into  an  an^busli  of  Saco  Indians,  he  lost  his  life 
in  Fryeburg,  near  a  sheet  of  water  which  has  taken  his  name ; 
and  the  stream  that  fee.'ls  it  is  still  known  to  the  i)eaeeful  hus- 
bandman as  the  Battle  J3rook. 


1725-1731. 


TJOUXDAItlES  OF  COLONIES. 


2'2l 


la  tlio  folhjwin^  Novoiiila-r,  tlio  oustern  IiuliaiiH,  who  had 
hcen  liiHtijjfak'd  hut  not  8Ui)portu(l  hy  this  Freii'-h,  unahlo  to 
coiituiid  oju'idy  witli  their  opponetitrt  and  exet'llud  even  hi 
their  own  methods  of  warfare,  cou»:hi(h'd  a  peaee,  wldeh  iu 
Aupjnst  of  the  next  year  was  ratified  hy  the  eliiefs  uh  far  iis  the 
St.  John,  and  waH  lonj;  and  faithfidly  niaintaineih  Inthience 
hy  coiinnereo  took  the  j)laee  of  inthienee  hy  rc'igion,  and  Eiig- 
h.sh  trachng-houHes  siippKmted  Fnjneli  inissions.  Peace  on  the 
eastern  frontier  revived  the  maritime  enterprise  of  Maine,  and 
its  settlements  hegan  to  ()l)tain  a  fixed  prosperity. 

The  wilderness  that  divided  the  contending  claimants  post- 
])()ned  hostilities.  By  the  treaty  of  Ttrecht,  the  s''>jeets  and 
friends  of  hoth  nations  might  resort  to  each  other  ■  the  re- 
ciprocal henefit  of  their  trade;  and  an  active  C(m.  ' m'CO  sub- 
sisted hetween  Albany  and  Montreal  hy  means  of  the  Christian 
Inxpiois.  The  French,  in  171!),  gained  leave  to  build  a  trad- 
ing-house in  the  land  of  the  Onondagas.  In  1720,  Jeaneceur 
took  possession  of  Niagara;  and,  in  1722,  the  governor  of  Xew 
York  was  instructed  "  to  extend  with  caution  the  English  set- 
tlements as  far  as  possible,  since  there  was  no  great  pr<jbability 
of  obtaining  a  determination  of  the  general  boundary."  AVill- 
iani  llurnet,  then  governor  of  New  York,  )>estowed  assiduous 
care  on  the  condition  of  the  frontiei's,  invoked  colonial  con- 
cert, appealed  to  the  ministry,  and,  in  172*5,  persuaded  the 
New  York  legislature,  at  its  own  cost,  to  lay  the  foundation  of 
Oswego.  In  1727,  this  trading-post,  partly  at  the  expense  of 
Lurnet  himself,  was  converted  into  a  fortress,  in  defiance  of 
tlie  Five  Nations  and  the  constant  protest  of  France.  It  was 
the  avenue  thrcjugh  which  the  West  was  reached  by  English 
traders;  and  formed  a  station  for  the  IMiamis,  and  even  the 
Ilurons,  on  their  way  from  Detroit  to  iVlbany. 

The  limit  of  jurisdiction  between  England  and  F  riuicf*  was 
not  easy  of  adjustment.  FVance  had  never  yielded  its  claim 
tc  (hat  part  of  Vermont  and  New  York  which  is  watered  by 
streams  flowing  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  boat  of  (^hamplain 
had  entered  the  lake  that  makes  his  name  a  familiar  word  in 
the  same  summer  in  which  Hudson  asceixlcd  the  North  river. 
Holland  had  never  dispossessed  the  French.  There  was  no 
act  of  France  relincpiishing  its  pretension  before  the  treaty  of 


1 


1 1 


'I- 


m^    ' 


222    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi. 


on.  xiii. 


Utrecht.  The  amT)igiions  language  of  that  treaty  did,  indeed, 
refer  to  "  tlie  Five  Nations  subject  to  England  ;  "  but  French 
diplomacy  would  not  interpret  an  allusion  to  savage  hordes  as 
a  surrender  of  Canadian  territory,  while  the  English  revived 
and  exaggerated  the  riglits  of  the  Five  iS"ations. 

In  ITol,  at  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  Spanish  succes- 
sion, the  chiefs  of  the  Mohawks  and  Oneklas  had  appeared  m 
Albany ;  and  the  English  commissioners,  who  could  produce 
no  treaty,  yet  made  a  minute  in  their  books  of  entry  that  the 
Mohawks  and  the  Oneidas  had  placed  their  hunting-grounds 
imder  the  protection  of  the  English.  Immediately  their  hunt- 
ing-grounds were  interpreted  to  extend  to  Lake  Nipising ;  and, 
on  old  English  maps,  the  region  is  included  within  the  domin- 
ic^^^  of  England,  by  virtue  of  aa  act  of  cession  from  the  Iro- 
quois. 

But,  as  a  treaty  of  which  no  record  existed  could  hardly 
be  cited  as  a  surrender  of  lands,  it  was  the  object  of  Bur- 
net to  obtain  a  confirmation  of  this  grant.     Accordingly,  in 
the  treaty  concluded  at  Albany,  in  September  1720,  the  ces- 
sion of  the  Iroquois  country  west  of  Lake  Erie,  and  north 
of  Erie  and  Ontario,  was  confirmed ;  and,  in  addition,  a  strip 
of  sixty  miles  in  width,  extending  from  Oswego  to  Cuyahoga 
river  at  Cleveland,  was  "submitted  and  granted"  by  chiefs 
of  the  three  M-estem  tribes  to  "their  sovereign  lord.  King 
George,"  "  to  be  protected  and  defended  by  his  said  majesty, 
for  the  use  of  the  said  three  nations."     The  chiefs  could  give 
no  new  validity  to  the  alleged  treaty  of  1701 ;  they  had  no 
authority  to  make  a  cession  of  land,  nor  were  they  conscious 
of  attempting  it.     If  France  had  renounced  its  nglits  to  west- 
ern Xew  York,  it  had  done  so  only  in  1713  by  the  treaty  of 
Utrecht.    Each  new  ground  for  an  English  claim  was  a  confes- 
sion that  the  terms  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  were  far  from  being 
explicit. 

France  did  not  merely  remonstrate  against  the  attempt  to 
curtail  its  limits  and  appropriate  its  provinces.  Entering  Lake 
Champlain,  it  establislied,  in  1731,  the  fortress  of  the  cro\vn. 
The  garrison  was  at  first  stationed  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
lake,  within  the  present  to\v7iship  of  Addison,  but  soon  re- 
moved to  the  point,  where  its  batteries  defended  the  approach 


1721-1726. 


BOUNDARIES  OF   COLONIES. 


223 


to  Canada  by  water.  That  Fort  Dummer,  wliicli  was  within 
the  present  Brattleborongh,  was  within  the  limits  of  Massa- 
chusetts was  not  questioned  by  the  French. 

Among  the  public  officers  of  the  French,  who  gained  influ- 
ence over  the  red  men  by  adapting  themselves  with  happy 
facility  to  life  in  the  wilderness,  was  the  Indian  agent  Jon- 
caire.  For  twenty  years  he  had  been  successfully  employed 
in  negotiating  with  the  Senecas.  He  was  become,  by  adop- 
tion, one  of  their  ovm  citizens  and  sons,  and  to  the  culture  of 
a  Frenchman  added  the  fluent  eloquence  of  an  Iroquois  war- 
rior. "  I  have  no  happiness,"  said  he  in  council,  "  like  that  of 
Uving  Adth  my  brothers ; "  and  he  asked  leave  to  build  himself 
a  dweUing.  "  He  is  one  of  our  own  childi-en,"  it  was  said  in 
reply ;  "■  he  may  build  where  he  will."  And  he  planted  him- 
self in  the  midst  of  a  group  of  cabins  on  the  angle  formed  by 
the  junction  of  the  Niagara  with  Lake  Ontario,  within  the 
present  Lewiston.  In  May  cf  1721,  a  party  arrived  at  the 
spot,  among  whom  were  the  son  of  the  governor  of  New 
France,  from  Montreal,  and  Charlevoix,  best  of  early  writers 
on  Canadian  history.  They  observed  the  rich  soil  of  western 
New  York,  its  magnificent  forests,  its  mild  climate.  "  A  good 
fortress  in  this  place,  with  a  reasonable  settlement,  will  enable 
us,"  thus  they  reasoned,  "  to  dictate  law  to  the  Five  Nations, 
and  to  exclude  the  English  from  the  fur  trade."  And,  in  1726, 
four  years  after  Burnet  had  built  the  English  trading-house  at 
Oswego,  the  flag  of  France  floa*-cd  from  Fort  Niagara. 

The  fortress  at  Niagara  gave  a  control  over  the  commerce 
of  tiie  interior :  if  furs  descended  by  way  of  the  lakes,  they 
passed  over  the  portage  at  the  falls  to  Montreal.  The  bound- 
less region  in  which  they  were  gathered  knew  no  jurisdiction 
hut  that  of  the  French,  whose  trading  canoes  were  safe  in  all 
the  waters,  whose  missions  extended  beyond  Lake  Superior. 
Except  the  fortress  at  Oswego,  the  English  held  no  post  in 
the  country  watered  by  tributaries  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 


r  ;'  h 


u 

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<            1 

■ 

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-'  H 

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I 


224    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi.  ;  en.  xiv. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


PKOGKESS   OF   LOUISIANA. 


At  the  west  and  south,  Louisiana  was  held  by  the  French 
to  extend  to  tlie  river  Del  Norte ;  the  boundary  line  of  French 
pretensions,  in  disregard  of  the  claims  of  Sixain,  crossed  the 
Eocky  Mountains,  and  sought  its  termination  in  the  Gulf  of 
California.  At  the  north-west,  where  it  met  the  possessions 
of  the  company  of  Hudson's  bay,  the  British  commissioners, 
Bladen  and  the  younger  Pulteney,  who  repaired  to  Paris  to 
adjust  tlie  boundaries,  met  irreconcilable  cliiferences,  and  no 
attempt  was  made  to  run  the  line.* 

On  the  east,  the  line  between  Spain  and  France  was  equi- 
distant from  Pensacola  and  Mobile ;  with  England,  the  water- 
shed of  the  xVlleghany  Mountains  was  to  France  the  dividing 
line. 

The  French  made  haste  to  secure  their  influenco  on  the 
Ohio.  In  1098,  a  branch  of  the  Shawnees  estal)lished  them- 
selves at  Conestoga ;  in  1700,  William  Penn  received  them  as 
a  part  of  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  ;  and  they  scattered 
themselves  along  the  upper  branches  of  the  Delaware  and  the 
Susquehannah.  About  the  year  1 721:,  the  Delawares,  for  the 
conveniency  of  game,  migrated  to  branches  of  the  Ohio ;  and, 
in  172S,  the  Shawnees  gradually  followed  them.  Th^y  were 
soon  met  by  Canadian  traders.  In  1730,  the  wily  Joncaire  in- 
duced their  chiefs  to  visit  the  governor  at  Montreal.    In  the 

*  James  Monroe  to  Lcrd  llarrowby,  5  Sept.,  1804,  in  American  state  papers; 
Foreign  Affairs,  iii.,  OV ;  ami  Caleb  Gushing  on  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  210, 
are  incorrect.  Grecnhow,  in  his  History  of  Oregon,  2d  edition,  430.,  is  right.  An 
exhaustive  researcli  was  made  at  my  request  in  the  British  foreign  department 
and  in  the  record  ollice,  with  the  result  that  uo  line  was  agreed  upon. 


1710-1710. 


PROGRESS  OF  LOUISIANA. 


225 


next  year,  the  warriors  of  the  tribe,  hoisting  a  white  flag  in 
their  tOAvn,  put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  Louis  XY. 
The  government  of  Canada  annually  sent  them  presents  and 
friendly  messages. 

To  resist  the  French  claims,  Spotswood,  the  governor  of 
Virginia,  as  early  as  1710,  sought  to  extend  the  line  of  the 
Virginia  settlements  far  enough  to  the  west  to  interrupt  the 
chain  of  communication  between  Cimada  and  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  He  caused  the  passes  in  the  mountains  to  be  exam- 
ined, and  promoted  settlements  beyond  ther  Finding  other 
measm-es  unavailing,  he  favored  the  incorporation  of  a  Vir- 
ginia Indian  com])any,  which,  from  the  emoluments  of  a  mo- 
nopoly of  the  traffic,  should  sustain  forts  in  the  western  coun- 
try ;  but  in  England  at  that  time  determined  opposition  to  a 
privileged  company  led  to  a  repeal  of  the  act. 

In  1710,  the  subject  was  earnestly  pressed  upon  the  lords 
of  trade  by  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  who  counselled  the 
establishment  by  Virginia  of  a  fort  on  Lake  Erie.  From  1728, 
after  the  migration  of  the  Delawares  and  Shawnees,  James 
Logan,  the  secretary  of  Pennsylvania,  incessantly  demanded 
the  attention  of  the  proprietaiy  to  the  ambitious  designs  of 
France,  which  extended  "  to  the  heads  of  all  the  tributaries  of 
the  Ohio."  "This,"  he  rightly  added,  "interferes  with  the 
five  degrees  of  longitude  of  this  province."  In  the  autumn  of 
1731,  immediately  after  the  establishment  of  Crown  Point, 
Logan  prepared  a  memorial  on  the  state  of  the  P>ritish  planta- 
tions, which  was  communicated  to  Sir  Robert  "VValpole.  But 
"tlie  grand  minister  and  those  about  him  were  too  solicitously 
concerned  for  their  own  standing  to  lay  anything  to  heart 
that  was  at  so  great  a  distance." 

The  avenue  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Mississippi,  by 
way  of  the  Miami  of  the  lakes,  came  more  and  more  into  use. 
Emigrants  from  Canada  continued  to  increase  the  settlement 
at  the  portage  on  the  Wabash,  where  tht  post  Vineennes  was 
estabHshed  not  later  than  1735.  In  1712,  a  few  herdsmen 
gained  permission  of  the  natives  to.pastm-e  their  beeves  on  the 
fertile  fields  of  Blanche  river. 

The  widest  extent  of  Louisiana  was,  on  the  eve  of  the 
treaty  of  Utrecht,  expressly  asserted  in  the  royal  grant  of  the 

VOL.   II. — 15 


J! 


ii 


i  ?■„' 


220     HKITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.    paht  hi.  ;  cii.  xiv. 


i  I 


oxcluKivo  trade  of  tliu  territory  to  Anthony  Crozat,  a  Fvnnch 
iner'ihant,  who  liad  "prospered  in  oi)ulenee  to  the  aatonitih- 
mcnt  of  all  the  world."  La  Motto  Cadillac,  the  founder  of 
the  military  post  at  Detroit,  now  the  royal  governor  of  Louisi- 
aiia,  hecame  his  })artner. 

Hardly  had  their  olHcers  landed  at  Dauphine  island  when, 
in  May  171-5,  a  vessel  was  sent  to  Vera  (!ruz;  but  every  Span- 
ish harbor  in  the  (Julf  of  Mexico  was  closed  against  them. 
Liberty  of  coinn'.eree  in  the  wilderness  claimed  by  Spain  was 
sternly  refused.  With  better  success,  in  1714,  Charleville 
established  a  trading-post  where  now  is  Nashville. 

From  the  mines  of  Louisiana  it  was  still  hoped  to  obtain 
"great  (piantities  of  gold  and  silver."  Two  ])ieces  of  silver 
ore,  left  at  Kaskaskia  by  a  traveller  from  Mexico,  were  exhib- 
ited to  (\ulillac  as  the  produce  of  a  mine  in  Illinois;  and, 
elated  by  the  seeming  assurance  of  success,  he  hurried  up  the 
river,  to  iind  in  IMissouri  abundance  of  the  jnirest  ore  of  lead, 
but  neitlier  silver  nor  gold. 

The  only  j)ros[>erity  of  the  province  had  grown  out  of  the 
enterprise  of  humble  individuals,  who  had  succeeded  in  insti- 
tuting a  little  barter  with  the  natives,  and  a  petty  contraband 
trade  with  neighboring  European  settlements.  These  were  cut 
olf  by  the  prolitless  but  fatal  monopoly  of  the  J^arisian  mer- 
chant. The  Indians  were  too  nunu'rous  to  be  resisted  by  his 
factoi-s.  The  English  gradually  apj)ropriated  the  trade  with  the 
natives  ;  and  every  Frenchman  in  Louisiana,  except  his  agents, 
fomented  opposition  to  his  privileges.  Crozat  resigned  his  char- 
ter. On  receiving  it,  Louisiana  pi)ssessed  twejity-eight  French 
families:  in  1717,  when  he  abandoned  it,  the  troops  sent  by  the 
king,  joined  to  the  colonists,  did  not  swell  the  inhabitants  of  the 
colony  to  more  than  seven  hundred,  including  persons  of  every 
age,  sex,  and  voVn:  These  few  were  scattered  from  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  (^reeks  to  Natchitoches,  In  1714,  Avith  the 
aid  of  a  band  of  the  Choctas,  Fort  Toulouse,  a  small  military 
])ost,  had  been  buijt  and  garrisoned  on  the  head-waters  of  tlio 
Alabama,  at  the  juncition  of  the  Coosa  and  the  Tallapoosa. 
After  a  short  ])eri()d  of  hostilities,  which  spning  in  part  from 
the  influence  of  English  traders  among  tlie  Chicasius,  Bienville 
chanted  the  song  of  peace  Avith  the  great  chief  of  the  Natchez; 


1716-1718. 


PROGRESS  OF  LOUISIANA. 


.  ^     \  ;fr 


227 


and  ii  fort,  Imilt  in  1710,  and  named  Eosalie  in  honor  of  the 
countc'SH  of  Ponteliartrain,  protected  the  French  connnercial 
cstal.liHlnnent  in  tlieir  village.  Such  was  tlie  origin  of  the  city 
of  Natchez.  In  the  Mississippi  valley,  it  is  the  oldest  penna- 
iieiit  settlenient  soutli  of  Illinois. 

The  imagination  of  France  was  inflamed,  and  the  commerce 
and  opnlenco  of  coming  ages  waa  clutched  at  as  within  imme- 
diate grasp,  when  John  Law  obtained  the  control  of  the  com- 
merce of  Louisiana  and  Canada.     Tlie  debt  which  Lo-jis  XIV. 
bequeathed  to  his  successor,  after  arbitrary  reductions,  exceed- 
ed two  milliards  of  livres;  and,  to  meet  the  annual  interest  of 
eighty  millions,  the  surplus  revenues  of  the  state  did  not  yield 
mere  than  nine  millions.     In  this  period  of  depression,  John 
Law  proposed  to  the  regent  to  liberate  the  state  from  its  enor- 
mous burden,  without  loans  or  taxes,  by  a  system  which  should 
bring  all  the  money  of  France  on  deposit.     It  was  the  faith  of 
Law  that  the  cuiTency  of  a  country  is  bnt  the  representative 
01  its  moving  wealth ;  that  this  representative  need  not  possess 
in  itself  an  intrinsic  vahie,  but  may  be  made  of  shells  or  paper; 
that,  where  gold  and  silver  are  the  only  circulating  medium,' 
the  wealth  of  a  nation  may  be  at  once  indefinitely  increased  by 
an  arbitrary  infusion  of  paper;  that  credit  consists  in  the  excess 
of  circulation  over  innnediate  resources ;  and  that  the  advan- 
tage of  credit  is  in  the  direct  ratio  of  that  excess.     Applying 
these  maxims  to  France,  he  i^latmed  the  whimsically  gigantic 
project  of  collecting  all  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  kingdom  into 
one  bank.  ^  At  first,  from  his  private  bank,  having  a  nominal 
capital  of  six  million  livres  of  which  a  part  was  payable  in  gov- 
enunent  notes,  l)ills  were  emitted  with  moderation ;  and,  while 
the  despotic  government  had   been  arbitrarily  changing  the 
value  of  its  coin,  his  notes,  being  payable  in  coin  at  an  unvary- 
ing standard  of  Aveight  and  fineness,  bore  a  small  premium. 
When  Crozat  resigned  the  commerce  of  Louisiana,  it  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Western  com])any,  better  knoAvn  as  the  company 
of  ]\rississippi,  instituted  under  the  auspices  of  Law.    The  stock 
of  the  corporation  was  fixed  at  two  hundred  thousand  shares, 
of  five  hundred  livres  each,  to  be  paid  in  any  certificates  of 
public  de1)t.     Thus,  nearly  one  hundred  millions  of  the  most 
depreciated  of  the  i)ul)lic  stocks  were  suddenly  absorbed,  the 


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228     IMtrriSIl  AMKUICA  I'llOM  ir.8H  TO  1748.     i-autiii.;  oh.  xiv. 

{^ovi^riiiiH'iil,  cliiiiii^iii^  ilH  ohli^iitioiiH  Iroiii  iiii  iiKltihledricsH  to 
iiidividiiiils  to  an  iiulehtediR'KS  lo  a  I'uvorud  coiiijuiny  of  itn  own 
croiition.  'J'lirou<fli  tin;  hunk  of  Law,  tho  interest  oil  the  dul<t 
WUH  discharged  piinctuaily  ;  and,  in  conscMiuoiicc,  the  evidonccs 
of  dcl)t,  wliicli  wcro  received  in  payment  for  wtock,  roHu  rapidly 
from  a,  depreciation  of  two  thirds  to  par  value.  Public  credit 
seemed  restored  as  if  by  a  miracle.  '^Fales  were  revived  of  the 
wealth  of  Louisiana;  ils  ingots  of  ^old  had  been  seen  in  Paris. 
The  vision  of  a  fertile  empire,  with  plautations,  manors,  cities, 
and  busy  wharfs,  a  mouopoly  of  conuuerco  throughout  all 
l-'ri'iich  North  Anu'rica,  the  richest  silver  mines  aud  mountains 
of  g<»ld,  were  blended  in  the  i'^rench  mind  into  one  boundless 
j)romise  of  treasures.  The  regent,  who  saw  oj)eniiig  before 
iiim  unlindted  resources;  tlio  nobility,  the  churchmen,  who 
comiu!(e(l  for  favors  from  the  privileged  institution;  Ktock- 
jobbers,  including  dukes  and  peers,  mai-slialH  and  bislio|)s, 
women  of  rank,  statesnu-n  and  courtiers — eager  to  profit  by 
the  suddi'n  and  indelinite  rise  of  stocks,  cons])ired  to  reverence 
Law  as  the  greatest  man  of  his  age. 

In  September  1717,  tho  Western  company  obtained  its 
grant.  On  the  twenty-Hfth  <lay  of  August  1 7 1 8,  after  a  long 
but  happy  voyage,  the  Victory,  the  Duchess  of  Noai lies,  aud 
the  Marv,  bearing  I'ight  bundred  emigrants  for  Louisiana, 
chanted  their  Te  Deum  ius  they  cast  anchor  near  l)aui)hine 
island.  Bienville,  in  the  midsunnner  of  that  year,  had  selected 
the  site  for  the  capital  of  the  new  empire ;  aiul  from  the  regent 
of  l''ra:u'e,  the  i)romised  city  received  the  name  of  New  Or- 
leans. Tile  emigrants  disembarked  on  the  crystalline  sands  of 
Dauphine  island,  to  make  their  way  as  tiny  ctmld  to  the  lands 
that  had  been  ceded  to  them.  8ome  perished  for  want  of  en- 
ter])rise,  some  from  the  climate ;  those  who  prospered,  did  so 
by  their  own  indomitable  energy.  The  Canadian  Dii  Tissenet, 
l)urchasing  a  eom|)iu?s,  aud  taking  an  escort  of  fourteen  Cana- 
dians, went  fearlessly  from  Dauphine  island  by  way  of  the 
]\lol)ile  river  to  (^)uebec,  and  returned  to  the  banks  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi with  his  family.  The  most  successful  colonists  of  Lou- 
isiana were  hardy  emigrants  from  Canada,  who  brought  with 
them  little  beyond  a  st;ill'  juul  the  coarse  clotlies  that  covered 
them. 


*''  !i'\. 


1718-1720. 


PROGRESS  OF  LOUISIANA. 


229 


Of  tin;  now-fomors  from  Franco,  eiglity  convicts  were  sent 
to  the  siff  of  Now  ( )rl(!!uiH,  to  prepare  rooin  for  a  few  tents  and 
cotta/^'os;  hnt  tlie  oini^n-ants  Ktill  oontinned  to  disembark  on  the 
coast;  and,  in  1721,  Hienviile  liirriself  for  a  second  time  estab- 
lislied  the  head-(piarters  of  Louisiana  at  Biloxi. 

Meantime,  Alberoni,  the  minister  of  Spain,  having,  con- 
trnry  to  its  intcTcsts  and  to  those  of  Franco,  involved  the  two 
coiintries  in  a  war,  Scrii^niy  arrived,  in  February  of  1719,  with 
orders  to  take  possession  of  the  l)ay  and  fort  of  Ponsacola. 
On  the  margin  of  tlie  bay,  called,  in  tlio  days  oi  Do  Soto,  An- 
cliusi,  afterward,  in  l(;!);j,  St.  Mary,  and  St.  Maiy  of  Galve, 
Don  Andres  de  Arricla  had,  in  l(i!)r>,  built  a  fort,  a  chnrcli' 
and  a  few  houses,  in  a  place  without  commerce  or  agricidture 
or  productive  labor  of  any  kind.  On  the  fourteenth  of  May 
171!),  the  fort,  after  five  hours'  resistance,  surrendered,  and 
the  Freiieh  hoped  to  extend  their  power  to  the  Atlantic.  But 
within  forty  days  the  Spaniards  recovered  the  town,  and  at- 
teuipted,  in  their  tuni,  to  conquer  the  French  posts  on  Dau- 
phine  isjiuid  and  on  the  Mobile.  Tn  Septoiid)er,  the  French 
recovered  Pensacola,  Avhich,  by  the  treaty  of  1721,  reverted  to 
Spain.  The  tidings  of  peace  were  welcomed  at  Biloxi  with 
heartfelt  joy. 

P)Ut  a  change  had  taken  place  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Missis- 
Rijipi  company.  By  its  coimoction  with  the  bank  of  Law,  its 
first  attempts  at  colonization  were  conducted  with  careless 
jmxligality.  The  richest  and  the  most  inviting  lands  in  the 
southen.  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  were  conceded  to  companies 
or  to  individuals  who  sought  jirincipalitios  in  the  New  World. 
It  w;is  hoped  that  at  once  six  thousand  white  colonists  would 
he  esta])l'shod  in  Louisiana.  To  Law  himself  tho'-o  was  granted 
a  vast  prairie  on  the  Arkansas,  where  ho  designed  to  plant  a 
city  and  villages,  and  his  investments  rapidly  amounted  to  a 
iin'llion  and  a  half  of  livros.  Thit  the  decline  of  Louisiana  fol- 
lowed on  the  financial  changes  in  France. 

In  January  of  171  i>,  the  bank  of  Law  became,  by  a  negotia- 
tion with  the  regent,  the  Bank  of  Franco  ;  and  a  government 
which  had  almost  absolute  jiowor  of  legislation  conspired  to 
give  the  widest  extensi(,ii  to  what  was  called  credit.  The  con- 
test between  paper  and  specie  began  to  rage ;  the  one  buoyed 


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230    BRITISU  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    rAiixm.;  cu.  xiv. 

up  by  despotic  power,  the  other  aj)pealing  to  common  sense. 
Within  four  years,  a  succession  of  decrees  elumged  the  relative 
value  of  the  livre  not  less  than  fifty  times,  that,  from  disgust 
at  fluctuation,  paper  at  a  fixed  rate  might  be  preferred.     All 
taxes  were  to  be  collected  in  paper ;  at  last,  paper  was  made 
the  legal  tender  in  all  payments.     To  win  the  little  gold  and 
silver  that  was  hoarded  by  the  humbler  classes,  small  ])ills,  as 
low  even  as  of  ten  livres,  were  put  in  circulation.     The  pur- 
chase of  the  bank  by  the  government  met  less  opposition, 
when  a  second  scheme  was  devised  for  absorbing  its  issues. 
Two  kinds  of  paper,  bills  payable  on  demtmd  and  certificates 
of  stock,  were  put  abroad  together ;  and  the  stupendous  project 
was  formed  of  paying  off  the  public  debt  in  baidc-bills,  to 
absorb  which  new  shares  in  the  Mississippi  comjjany,  under  the 
title  of  the  Company  of  the  Indies,  were  constantly  created  and 
offered  for  sale.     The  extravagance  of  hope  was  nourished  l)y 
the  successive  surrender  to  that  corporation  of  additional  mo- 
noi)olies — the  trade  in  Africans,  the  trade  on  the  Indian  seas, 
the  sale  of  tobacco,  the  profits  of  the  royal  mint,  the  profits 
of  farming  the  whole  revenue  of  France — till  a  promise  of  a 
dividend  of  forty  per  cent,  from  a  company  which  had  the 
custody  of  the  revenues  and  the  benefit  of  the  commerce  of 
France,  obtained  l)elief.     Avarice  became  a  frenzy ;  its  fury 
seized  every  member  of  the  royal  family,  men  of  letters,  prel- 
ates, and  women.     Early  in  the  morning,  the  exchange  opened 
with  beat  of  dnun  and  sound  of  bell,  and  closed  at  night  on 
avidity  that  could  not  slumber.     To  doubt  the  wealth  of  Lou- 
isiana provoked  anger.     New  Orleans  was  famous  at  Paris  as 
a  city  before  its  canebrakes  were  cut  down.     The  hypocrisy 
of  manners,  which  in  the  old  age  of  Louis  XIV.  made  religion 
a  fashion,  revolted  to  libertinism ;  and  licentious  pleasure  was 
become  the  parent  of  an  equally  licentious  cupidity.     In  the 
course  of  sixteen  months,  more  than  two  milliards  of  stock  were 
emitted  ;  and  the  regent's  mother  could  write  that  ''  all  the 
king's!  debts  were  paid."     The  extravagances  of  stock-jobbing 
were  increased  by  the  latent  distrust  alike  of  the  shares  and 
of  the  bills ;  men  purchased  stock  because  they  feared  the  end 
of  the  paper  system,  and  because  with  the  bills  they  could  i)ur- 
chase  nothing  else.     The  parliament  protested  that  private 


1720-1729. 


PROGKESS  OF  LOUISIANA. 


281 


persons  were  by  tlie  system  defrauded  of  three  fifths  of  their 
incoine.     To  stifle  doubt,  Law,  wlio  luid  made  lilmself  a  Catho- 
lie,  WJW,  in  January  1720,  appointed  comptroller-general;  and, 
in  the  next  month,  the  new  minister  of  finance  perfected  the 
triumph  of  paper  by  a  decree  that  no  person  or  corporation 
.should  have  on  hand  more  than  five  hundred  livres  in  specie ; 
the  rest  must  be  exchanged  for  paper,  and  all  payments,  except 
for  sums  under  one  hundred  livres,  must  be  paid  in  pajier. 
Terror  and  the  dread  of  informers   brought,  within  three 
weeks,  forty-four  millions  into  the  bank.    In  March,  a  decree 
of  council  fixed  the  value  of  the  stock  at  nine  thousand  livres 
for  five  hundred,  and  forbade  certain  coii)orations  to  invest 
money  in  anything  else ;  all  circulation  of  gold  and  silver,  ex- 
cept for  change,  was  prohibited ;  all  payments  must  be  made 
in  paper,  except  for  sums  under  ten  livres.     He  who  should 
have  attempted  to  convert  a  bill  into  specie  would  have  ex- 
posed his  specie  to  forfeiture  and  himself  to  fines.     Confidence 
disappeared,  and,  in  May,  bankniptcy  was  avowed  by  a  decree 
which  reduced  the  value  of  bank-note;  by  a  moiety.     The 
French  people  remained  faithful  to  their  delusion  till  France 
was  impoverished,  public  and  private  credit  subverted,  the 
income  of  capitalists  annihilated,  and  labor  left  without  em- 
plo\nnent ',  Avhile,  in  the  Kidst  of  the  universal  wretchedness 
of  tlio  middling  class,  a  few  wary  s])eculatore,  profiting  by 
fluctuations,  gloried  in  their  wrongfully  accpiired  wealth.     The 
chancellor  Aguesseau,  who  was  driven  from  office  because  he 
could  show  no  favor  to  the  system,  was,  after  a  short  retire- 
ment, restored  to  greater  honors  than  before,  and  lives  in  mem- 
ory as  a  tolerant  and  incorruptible  statesman ;  while  those  who 
assisted  the  recklessness  of  Law  have  been  rescued  from  infamy 
only  by  oblivion. 

The  do^^nifall  of  Law  abniptly  curtailed  expenditures  for 
Louisiana.  But  a  colony  was  already  planted,  destined  to  en- 
counter and  survive  all  dangers.  Charlevoix,  the  enlightened 
traveller,^  held  America  happy  as  the  land  in  whicli  the  patriot 
conld  point  to  no  ruins  of  a  more  prosperous  age,  and  predicted 
that  the  site  where  he  found,  in  1722,  "  two  hundred  persom 
encamped  on  the  borders  of  a  gi-eat  river"  to  build  a  city,  on 
land  "  still  almost  entirely  covered  with  forest-trcco  and  canes. 


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232    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    part  in.;  on.  xiv. 

would  become,  and  perhaps  at  no  distant  day,  the  opulent  me- 
tropolis of  a  graiul  and  rich  colony.  I  found  this  opinion,"  he 
said,  "  on  the  situation  of  the  place,  within  twenty-four  hours 
from  the  sea ;  on  the  fertility  of  its  soil ;  the  softness  and  good- 
ness of  its  climate ;  the  industry  of  its  inhabitants ;  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Mexico,  of  Havana,  of  the  moat  beautiful  isles^of 
America,  and  of  the  English  colonies.  What  more  is  needed 
to  make  the  city  flourishing  'i  Rome  and  Paris  were  not  built 
under  so  happy  auspices;  nor  did  they  offer  the  advantages 
which  wo  find  in  the  Mississippi,  compared  with  which  the 
Seine  and  the  Tiber  are  but  rivulets." 

For  the  time,  the  disenchanted  public  would  see  in  Louisi- 
ana  nothing  but  the  graves  of  emigrants.  In  1722,  the  garrison 
at  Fort  Toulouse  revolted ;  and,  of  the  soldiers,  six-and-twenty 
attempted  to  reach  the  English  settlements  of  Carolina.  When, 
in  1737,  a  Jesuit  i)riest  arrived  at  the  domain  granted  to  Law 
on  the  Arkansas,  he  found  only  thirty  needy  Frenchmen  who 
had  been  abandoned  by  their  employer,  and  had  no  consolation 
but  in  the  blandness  of  the  climate  and  the  unrivalled  fertihty 
of  the  soil. 

From  the  easier  connection  of  Mobile  with  the  sea,  it  re- 
mained a  principal  post ;  but,  in  August  of  1723,  the  (piarters 
of  Bienville  were  transferred  to  New  Orleans,  where  the  cen- 
tral point  of  French  power,  after  hovering  round  Ship  island 
and  Dauphine  Island,  the  bays  of  Eiloxi  and  Mobile,  was  at  last 
established.  The  emigrants  to  Arkansas  removed  to  lands  on 
the  river  nearer  that  city. 

The  villages  of  the  Natchez,  planted  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  fertile  climes  of  the  South-west,  rose  near  the  banks  of 
the  Mississippi.  There  was  among  the  Natchez  no  greater 
culture  than  among  the  Choctas;  and  their  manners  hardly 
differed  from  those  of  northern  tribes,  except  as  they  were 
modified  by  climate ;  but  the  accounts  which  we  have  of  them 
are  meagre,  and  wanting  in  scientific  exactness. 

The  French,  who  were  cantoned  among  tlie  Natchez,  coveted 
their  soil;  the  French  commander,  Chopart,  required  for  a 
plantation  the  very  site  of  their  principal  village.  The  tribe 
listened  to  the  counsels  of  the  Chicasas ;  they  gained  in  part 
the  support  of  the  Choctas;   and  a  general  massacre  of  the 


1729-1780. 


PROGRESS  OF  LOUISIANA. 


238 


intnidors  was  concerted.  On  tlio  morning  of  the  twenty-eighth 
of  November  172!>,  tlie  work  of  l)Io(i(l  begiin,  and  before  noon 
nearly  every  Frenchman  in  tlie  colony  was  nnirdered. 

At  that  time,  tlio  Jesuit  Du  Poisson  waw  tlio  missionary 
among  the  Arkansas.  Two  years  before,  he  had  made  his  way 
up  the  ^[ississippi  from  New  Orleans  till  he  reached  the 
prairies  that  had  been  selected  for  the  plantations  of  Law,  and 
smoked  the  calumet  with  the  southennnost  tribes  of  the  T)a- 
kotas.  Desiring  to  plan  a  settlement  near  the  margin  of  the 
Mississippi,  he  touclied  at  Natchez  in  search  of  counsel,  preached 
on  the  first  Sunday  in  advent,  visited  the  sick,  and  was  return- 
ing with  the  host  from  the  cabin  of  a  dying  man,  when  he, 
ton,  was  struck  to  the  ground,  and  beheaded.  Du  Cod^re,  the 
commander  of  the  post  among  the  Yazoos,  who  Jiad  drawn  his 
sword  to  defend  the  missionary,  was  killed  by  a  musket-ball, 
and  scalped  because  liis  hair  was  long  and  beautiful.  The 
planter  Koli,  a  Swiss  by  birth,  one  of  the  most  worthy  mera- 
bera  of  the  colony,  liad  come  with  his  son  to  take  possession 
of  a  tract  of  land  on  St.  Catharine's  creek;  and  both  were 
sliot.  The  Capuchin  missionary  among  the  Natchez,  returning 
from  an  accidental  absence,  was  killed  near  his  cabin,  and  a 
negro  slave  by  his  side.  Two  white  men,  both  mechanics,  and 
two  only,  were  saved.  The  number  of  victims  was  reckoned 
at  two  hundred.  Women  ^^•ere  spared  for  menial  sei-vices; 
children,  as  captives.  When  the  work  of  death  was  iinished, 
pillage  and  carousals  began. 

The  news  si)read  dismay  in  New  Orleans.  Each  house 
was  supplied  with  amis ;  the  city  fortified  by  a  ditch.  Danger 
appeared  on  every  side.  The  negroes,  of  whom  the  number 
was  about  two  thousand,  half  as  many  as  the  French,  showed 
symptoms  of  revolt.  But  the  brave  Le  Sueur  won  the  Choc- 
tas  to  his  aid,  and  was  followed  across  the  country  by  seven 
hundred  of  their  warriors.  On  the  river,  the  forces  of  the 
French  were  assemliled,  and  placed  under  the  command  of 
Loubois. 

Le  Sueur  was  the  first  to  arrive  in  the  vici)n"ty  of  the 
Natchez.  On  the  evening  of  the  twenty-eighth  of  January 
1730,  they  gave  themselves  up  to  sleep,  after  a  day  of  festivity. 
On  the  following  morning,  at  daybreakj  the  Choctas  broke 


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234    BUITI8II  A^^ERIGA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     part  in.;  cir.  xiv. 

into  their  villuj^'es,  libenitcd  their  captiveH,  and,  kwin<^  Imt 
two  of  their  own  men,  brought  oil  aisty  Hcalprt  with  eighteen 
prisoners. 

On  the  eighth  of  February,  Loul)oiH  airived,  and  completed 
the  vietoiy.  The  captives  inchided  nearly  four  huiuhvd  wo- 
men and  c'hihh-en ;  most  of  the  warriors  found  shelter  in  re- 
mote tribes ;  but  the  great  chief  and  others  were  8hii)ped  to 
Ilispaniohi  and  sold  as  slttves.  So  perished  the  nation  of  the 
Natchez. 

The  cost  of  defending  Louisiana  exceeding  the  returns 
from  its  commerce  and  from  grants  of  land,  the  company  of 
the  Indies,  seel<ing  Avealth  by  coiupiests  or  trathc  on  the  coast 
of  Guinea  and  Ilindostan,  solicited  leave  to  surrender  the  Mis- 
sissippi wilderness;  and,  on  the  tenth  of  April  1732,  the  juris- 
diction and  control  over  its  commerce  reverted  to  the  crown 
of  France.  The  company  had  held  jwssession  of  Louisiana 
for  .ourteen  yeai-s,  which  were  its  only  years  of  comparative 
prosperity.  The  early  extravagant  hopes  had  continued  long 
enough  to  attract  emigrants,  who,  being  once  established,  took 
care  of  themselves.  In  1735,  the  Canadian  Bienville  rea|)- 
peared  to  assume  the  counnand  for  the  king. 

The  great  object  of  the  crown  was  the  establishment  of  its 
power  in  Louisiana.  The  Chicasas  were  tlie  dreaded  enemies, 
who  had  hurried  the  Natchez  to  bloodshed  and  destruction ; 
in  their  cedar  barks,  shooting  boldly  into  the  Mississippi, 
they  internipted  the  connection  between  Kaskaskia  and  New 
Orleans.  They  maintained  their  savage  independence,  and 
weakened  hy  dividing  the  French  empire.  They  made  all 
settlements  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Mississippi  unsafe  from 
the  vicinity  of  New  Orieans  to  Kaskaskia.  They  welcomed 
the  English  traders  from  Carolina  to  their  villages ;  they  even 
endeavored  to  debauch  the  affections  of  the  Illinois,  and  to 
ex-tii-pate  French  dominion  from  the  West.  After  nearly  two 
years"  preparation,  in  1730,  the  whole  force  of  the  colony  at 
the  South,  with  Artagnette  and  troops  from  his  command  in 
Illinois  and  probably  from  the  Wabash,  was  directed  to  meet, 
on  the  tenth  of  ]\Iay,  in  their  land.  The  government  of  France 
had  itself  given  directions  for  the  invasion,  and  watched  the 
issue  of  the  strife. 


1730-1739. 


PROGIiESS  OF  LOUISIANA. 


386 


From  New  OrleiuiH,  the  ilcet  of  thirty  hoatn  and  as  many 
jnro^nic's  departed  tor  Fort  Coiido  ai  Mohik",  vvhicli  it  did  not 
leave  till  the  fourth  of  April.  In  Hixteen  dayw,  it  ascended  tlio 
river  to  Tomhighee,  a  foi-t  whieh  an  advanced  party  had  con- 
stnicted  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river,  two  hundred  and  lifty 
luilcH  above  the  bay.  Of  the  men  employed  in  its  conatruc- 
tio'.,  some  attempted  to  escape  into  the  wilderness:  by  sen- 
tence of  a  court-martial,  they  were  shot. 

The  Choctas,  lured  by  gifts  of  merchandise  and  high  re- 
wards for  every  scal{),  gathered  at  Fort  Tombigbeo  to  aid 
Bienville.  Of  these  red  auxiliaries,  the  number  was  about 
twelve;  hundred;  and  the  whole  i)arty  slowly  sounded  its  way 
ui)  the  windings  of  the  Tombighee  to  the  point  where  Cotton 
Gin  Port  now  stands,  and  which  was  but  al)out  twenty-one 
miles  south-east  of  the  great  village  of  the  Chicasas.  There 
the  artillery  was  deposited  in  a  temporary  fcn-titication  ;  and 
the  forests  and  prairies  between  the  head-sources  of  the  Tom- 
bighee and  the  TaUahatchie  were  disturi)ed  by  the  march  of 
the  army  toward  the  long  house  of  their  enemy.  After  the 
manner  of  Indian  warfare,  they  encamped,  on  tlie  evenino-  of 
the  twenty-lifth  of  May,  at  tlie  distance  of  a  league  from  the 
village.  In  the  morning,  before  day,  they  advanced  to  surprise 
the  Chiciisas.  In  vain.  The  brave  warriors,  whom  they  had 
come  to  destroy,  were  on  the  watch ;  their  intrenchments  were 
strong;  English  Hags  waved  over  their  fort;  English  traders 
had  assisted  them  in  preparing  defence.  Tw"ce  during  the 
day  an  attempt  was  made  to  stonn  their  l<jg  citadel ;  and  twice 
the  French  were  repelled,  with  a  loss  of  thirty  killed,  of  whom 
four  were  officers.  The  next  day  saw  skinuishes  between  par- 
ties of  Choctas  and  Chico.sas.  On  the  twenty-nintli,  the  retreat 
began;  on  the  thirty-first  of  May,  Bienville  dismissed  the 
Choctas,  having  satisfied  them  with  presents;  and,  throwi..g 
his  cannon  into  the  Tombigbee,  his  party  ingloriously  fioated 
down  the  river.  In  the  last  days  of  June,  lie  lauded  on  the 
banks  of  the  bayou  St.  John. 

The  young  Artaguette  had  gained  glory  in  the  war  against 
the  Natchez,  braving  death  mider  every  form.  Advanced  to 
the  connnand  in  Illinois,  he  obeyed  the  suunnons  of  Bien- 
ville; and,  with  an  army  uf  about  fifty  J^'rench  soldiei-s  and 


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236    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  in.;  en.  xit. 

more  than  a  thousand  red  men,  accompanied  by  Father  Senat 
and  by  the  Canadian  Yinccnnes,  the  careful  liero  stole  cautious- 
ly and  unobserved  into  the  country  of  the  Chicasas,  and,  on 
tlie  evening  before  the  appointed  day,  encamped  among  the 
sources  of  the  Yalabusha.     But  the  cxi)ected  army  from  be- 
low did  not  arrive.     For  ten  days  he  retained  his  impatient 
allies  in  the  \acinity  of  their  enemy ;  at  last,  as  they  menaced 
desertion,  he  consented  to  an  attack.     His  measures  were  wise- 
ly ai-ranged.     One  fort  was  carried,  and  the  Chicasas  driven 
from  tlie  cabins  Aviiich  it  protected ;  at  the  second,  the  intre- 
pid youth  was  equally  successfid ;  on  attacking  the  third  fort, 
he  received  one  wound,  and  then  another,  and  in  the  mo- 
ment of  victory  was  disabled.     The  red  men  from  Illinois, 
dismayed  at  the  check,  Hed  precipitately.     Voisin,  a  lad  o^  but 
sixteen  years,  conducted  the  retreat  of  the  French,  having  the 
enemy  at  his  heels  for  five-and-twenty  leagues,  m,  rching  forty- 
five  leagues  without  food,  while  his  men  carried  with  them 
such  of  the  wounded  as  could  bear  the  fatigue.     The  unhappy 
Artag-uette  was  left  weltering  in  his  blood,  and  by  his  side  lay 
others  of  his  bravest  troops.     The  Jesuit  Senat  might  have 
escaped  ;  he  remained  to  receive  the  last  sigh  of  the  woimded. 
Yincennes,  the  Canadian,  refused  to  fly,  and  shared  the  captiv- 
ity of  his  gallant  leader.    After  the  Indian  custom,  their  wounds 
were  stan-hed  ;  they  were  received  into  the  cabins  of  the  Chic- 
asas, and  feasted  bountifully.     When  Bienville  had  retreatpd, 
the  captives  were  brought  into  a  field;  and,  while  one  was 
spared  to  relate  the  deed,  the  adventurous  Artaguette,  the 
faithful  Senat,  true  to  his  mis&ion,  Yincennes,  whose  name  will 
be  perpetuated  as  long  as  the  Wabash  shall  flow  by  the  dwell- 
ings of  civihzed  man— these,  with  the  rest  of  the  captives, 
were  bound  to  the  stake,  and  neither  valor  nor  piety  could  save 
them  from  death  by  slow  torments  and  fii-e.     Such  is  the  early 
history  of  the  state  of  Mississippi. 

Ill  success  did  l)ut  increase  the  disposition  to  continue  the 
Avai.  To  advance  the  colony,  a  royal  edict  of  1737  permitted 
a  ten-years'  freedom  of  connnerce  between  the  West  India 
island.-!  and  LouisiaTia;  while  a  new  expedition  against  the 
Chicasas,  receiving  aid  not  from  Illinois  only,  but  even  from 
Montreal  and  Quebec,  and  from  France,  made  its  rendezvous 


1739-1740. 


PROGRESS  OF  LOUISIANA. 


237 


iu  Arkansas,  on  the  St.  Francis  river.  In  the  last  of  June 
1739,  tlie  collective  anny,  composed  of  twelve  Imndi-ed  whites 
and  twice  that  number  of  red  and  blaclc  men,  took  up  its  quar- 
ters in  Fort  As8um])tion,  on  the  blulf  of  Memphis.  But  the 
recruits  from  France  and  the  Canadians  languished  in  the 
climate,  "When,  ni  March  17'10,  a  small  detachment  proceeded 
toward  the  Chicasa  country,  they  were  met  by  messengers  of 
peace ;  and  Bienville  gladly  accepted  the  calumet.  The  fort 
at  Memphis  was  razed;  the  troops  from  Illinois  and  from 
Canada  drew  back  ;  the  fort  on  the  St.  Francis  was  d:  smantled. 
From  Kaskaskia  to  Baton  Rouge  the  jurisdiction  of  France  was 
but  a  name. 

The  population  of  Louisianfi,  more  than  a  lialf-century  after 
the  first  attempt  at  colonization  by  La  Salle,  may  have  been 
five  thousand  whites  and  half  that  number  of  blacks.  Louis 
XIV.  had  fostered  it -with  pride  and  liberal  expenditures;  an 
opulent  merchant,  famed  for  his  successful  enterprise,  assumed 
its  direction ;  tlie  company  of  the  ]\Iississippi,  aided  by  bound- 
less but  transient  credit,  had  made  it  the  foundation  of  their 
hopes ;  and,  again,  Fleury  and  Louis  XY.  had  sought  to  ad- 
vance its  fortmies.  Priests  and  friars,  dispersed  through  na- 
tions from  Biloxi  to  the  Dakotas,  propitiated  the  favor  of  the 
savages.  Yet  all  its  patrons  had  not  brought  to  it  a  tithe  of 
the  prosperity  which,  within  the  same  period,  grew  out  of  the 
l)encv(»k'nce  of  "William  Penn  to  the  peaceful  settlers  on  the 
Delaware. 


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238     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     part  iii. ;  oh.  xv. 


i'lit 


J    I 


iii 


CHAPTEE  Xy. 

COLONIAL   ADMINISTKATION   TXDER   THE   HOUSE   OF   HANOVER. 

At  the  accession  of  George  I.,  the  continental  colonies 
connted  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty  ^rhite  inliabitants,  and  fifty-eight  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  fifty  black— in  all,  four  hundred  and  thirty-four 
thousand  six  hundred  souls — and  were  increasing  with  unexam- 
pled rapidity.  The  value  of  their  imports  from  England,  on  an 
average  of  the  first  three  years  of  George  I.,  was  a  little  less 
than  two  millions  of  dollars  ;  of  their  exports,  a  little  less  tlian 
seventeen  hundred  thousand  dollars ;  their  domestic  commerce 
equalled  that  with  England ;  their  trade  ^nth  the  British  and 
foreign  West  Indies,  the  Azores,  and  the  continent  of  Europe, 
exceeded  both.  They  had  institutions  like  those  of  the  mother 
country ;  and  the  house  of  Hanover  was  to  them  the  symbol 
of  liberty. 

As  a  guide  for  the  next  twenty-six  years  through  the  chaos 
of  colonial  administration,  a  discrimination  must  be  made  be- 
tween the  acts  which  the  British  parliament  abandoned  to  the 
discretion  of  the  ministry,  and  the  points  of  policy  which  it 
imperatively  and  inflexibly  dictated. 

It  M-as  a  period  of  corniption.  The  men  "n  power  used 
their  patronage  unscrupulously,  providing  for  their  relatives, 
or  dependents,  or  partisans,  not  merely  by  naming  them  to 
offices  in  the  colonies,  l)ut  by  bestowing  on  them  the  dispo- 
sition of  oftices,  whicli  tlie  actual  holders  cither  bouglit  at  an 
unreasoua])le  pnce  or  by  setting  apart  for  their  patron  a  large 
pro}ioi-tion  of  the  emoluments  to  which  tliey  could  be  honestly 
entitled.  Wherever  a  colony  granted  the  crown  a  perpetual 
revenue  it  wa.s  sure  to  be  charged  with  English  suiecures  or 


u 


THE   COLONIES  UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER.  239 

pensions.  Horatio,  a  brotlier  of  Sir  Robei-t  Walpole,  for  ex- 
ample, under  the  title  of  "  auditor-general "  for  the  colonies, 
obtained  a  sinecure  grant  of  one  twentieth  part  of  the  reve- 
nues of  the  crown  in  all  the  West  Indian  and  K"orth  Ameri- 
can colonies.  The  places  of  governors  were  through  family 
favor  often  shamelessly  filled  by  the  least  worthy,  some  of 
whom  were  as  ready  to  further  their  o^vn  interests  by  circum- 
ventmg  the  crown  as  by  oppressing  the  people.  It  would 
have  been  very  easy  for  the  British  government  to  have  con- 
eihated  affection  and  respect  by  an  honest  use  of  the  pubUc 
money ;  but  the  avidity  of  the  persons  holding  office  was  con- 
stant and  too  strong. 

But  there  was  no  forbearance  when  the  interests  of  British 
commerce  and  manufactures  were  in  question.  In  May  1718, 
Massachusetts  imposed  a  duty  on  English  manufactures,  and,' 
as  its  o^vm  citizens  built  six  thousand  tons  of  shipping  annually, 
it  favored  their  industry  by  a  small  discrimination.  "In  a 
little  time,"  it  Avas  said  of  them,  "  they  will  be  able  to  live 
without  Great  Britain;  and  their  ability,  joined  to  their  in- 
clination, will  be  of  very  ill  consequence."  The  unpost  on 
English  goods,  though  of  but  one  per  cent,  was  negatived  by 
the  king,  Avith  the  warning  "that  the  passage  of  such  acts 
endangers  the  charter." 

Every  branch  of  consumption  was,  as  far  as  practicable, 
secured  to  English  numufacturcrs ;  every  form  of  competition 
by  colonial  industry  was  discouraged  or  forbidden.  It  was 
found  that  hats  were  well  made  in  the  land  of  furs :  the  Lon- 
don company  of  hatters  remonstrated  ;  and  their  craft  was 
protected  by  an  act  forbidding  hats  to  be  trans])orted  from  one 
plantation  to  another.  The  proprietors  of  Englisli  iron-works 
were  jealous  of  American  industry.  In  1719,  news  came  from 
Sanmel  Shute,  the  royal  governor  of  :\ra.^sachusetts,  that,  in 
soine  parts  of  his  government,  "the  inhabitants  worked  up 
their  wool  and  Hax,  and  made  a  coarse  cloth  for  their  own  use ; 
that  they  manufactured  great  part  of  their  leather;  that  there 
were  hatters  in  the  maritime  towns ;  and  that  six  furnaces  and 
nineteen  forges  were  set  up  for  making  iron."  The  spectres 
of  these  six  furnaces  and  nineteen  forges  haunted  the  pubUc 
imagination  for  a  quarter  of  ii  century.     The  house  of  com- 


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240     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi.;  en.  xv. 


m 


?\.y 


"!   I     I 


ifr 


!iJ£i  uiil' 


inons  readily  resolved  tliat  "  the  erecting  manufactories  in  the 
colonies  tended  to  lessen  their  dependence ; "  and,  under  pre- 
tence of  encouraging  the  importation  of  American  lumber 
they  passed  a  bill  having  the  clause,  "  that  none  in  the  planta- 
tions should  inanufacture  iron  wares  of  any  kind  out  of  any 
sows,  pigs,  or  bars  whatsoever."  The  house  of  lords  added 
"that  no  forge,  going  by  water,  or  other  works  should  be 
erected  in  any  of  the  said  plantations,  for  the  making,  work- 
ing, or  converting  of  any  sows,  pigs,  or  cast-iron  into  bar  or 
rod  iron."  But  the  opposition  of  the  northern  colonies  de- 
feated the  bill,  which  forbade  the  colonists  to  manufacture  a 
bolt  or  a  nail. 

The  board  of  trade,  after  long  inquiry,  in  September  1721, 
made  an  elaborate  report  of  the  statistics  of  colonial  coimnerce 
■  eagerly  adopting  every  view  which  magnified  its  unportance! 
They  found  tluit  it  yielded  in  favor  of  Great  Britain  a  yearly 
balance  of  two  hundi-ed  thousand  pounds ;  and  tliat,  on  a  fair 
estimate  of  indirect  advantages,  the  colonies  gave  employment 
to  one  fourth,  or  perluq^^  even  one  third,  of  the  whole  nav'^a- 
tion  of  Great  Britain.  Their  statements,  wliich  seemed  to 
justify  the  boast  of  a  colonial  agent,  "  that  London  had  risen 
out  of  the  plantations,  and  not  out  of  England,"  were  received 
as  the  results  of  exact  inipiiries,  and  formed  the  motive  to  the 
policy  of  succeeding  years. 

From  1721,  Sir  Eobert  Walpole  had,  during  more  than 
twenty  years,  the  undisputed  direction  of  English  affaii-s.  lie 
found  parliament  a  corrupt  body,  and,  to  govern  its  members, 
he  adopted  the  methods  which  they  required ;  but,  in  his  hap- 
pier hours,  there  were  those  who  had 

"  Seen  him,  uncumber'd  with  a  venal  tribe. 
Smile  without  art,  and  win  witliout  a  bribe." 
It  is  his  glory  that  he  refused  to  intrust  measures  of  cruel- 
ty to  executive  discretion,  saying,  with  tlie  higliest  wisdom : 
"He  that  gives  the  power  of  l)loud  gives  blood."  Of  the 
American  colonies  he  knew  little,  but  they  profited  by  the 
character  of  a  statesman  who  shunned  conipidsory  processes 
that  might  provoke  an  insurrection,  and  rejected  every  i)roj)o- 
sition  for  revenue  that  needed  the  sabre  and  bayonet  for  its 
collection.     It  was  his  purpose  to  make  England  tlie  liome  of 


THE  COLONIES  UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER.  241 


the  industrial  arts  and  of  commerce.  Export  duties  on  all 
jroods  of  Eritisli  produce  were  abolished,  tlir-s  gaining  for  man- 
kind some  advance  toward  freedom  of  intercourse.  The  Brit- 
ish colonial  monopoly  was  confirmed.  In  the  seventh  year  of 
George  I.,  the  inrportation  of  East  Indian  goods  into  the  colo- 
nies was  prohibited,  except  from  Great  Britain ;  and  thus  the 
colonists  virtually  paid  on  them  the  duties  retained  on  their 
exportation.  Furs  from  the  plantations  were  enumerated 
among  the  connnodities  which  could  be  exported  only  to  Great 
Britain ;  so,  too,  ore  from  the  abundant  copper  mines  of  Amer- 
ica. The  reservation  of  the  pine-trees  of  the  north  for  the 
British  navy  was  continned ;  and  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court 
of  vice-admiralty  extended  to  offenders  against  the  act.  The 
bounties  on  hemp  and  naval  stores  were  renewed,  and  the 
export  of  wood  and  lumber  from  the  colonies  was  made  free. 

By  restricting  American  manufactures,  the  board  of  trade, 
the  ministry,  the  united  voice  of  Great  Britain,  proposed 
to  guarantee  dependence.  No  sentiment  won  more  univer- 
sal acceptance.  Fashion  adopted  it;  Queen  Caroline  and 
the  prince  of  Wales  Avere  its  patrons ;  and,  in  1T29,  Joshua 
Gee,  who  had  already  for  many  years  been  consulted  by  the 
board  of  trade,  and  who  is  said  to  have  advised  an  American 
stamp  act  l)y  parliament,  embodied  the  ancient  prohibitoiy 
maxims  in  a  work  which  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  minis- 
try and  the  royal  family.  "  As  people  had  been  tilled  with 
fears  that  the  colonies,  if  encouraged  to  raise  rough  materials, 
would  set  up  for  tliemselves,"  he  reconnnended  the  prohibition 
of  colonial  maimfactures  as  the  security  of  England.  Others 
proposed  tluit  "an  exact  accoimt  be  taken  of  all  looms  now 
erected  in  the  plantations,  and  that  for  the  future  no  other  or 
more  looms  be  tolerated."  These  views  prevailed  at  court,  in 
the  board  of  trade,  and  throughout  England.  Men,  who  heard 
witli  indiiiVrence  of  the  bickerings  of  colonial  governors  with 
the  legislatures,  demanded  the  destruction  of  all  "the  iron- 
works in  the  plantations." 

For  colonists  to  manufacture  like  Englishmen  was  esteemed 
an  audacity,  to  be  rebuked  and  to  be  restrained  by  every  de- 
vice of  law.     The  mercantile  restricti\-e  system  was  the  super- 
Capitalists  worshipped  it ;  statesmen  were 

VOL.   II. — 10 


stitiou  of  that  ajre 


/ih 


m 


IJ 


'i!' 


Itjl 


iifeii' 


I 


242      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     .  vetiii.;  cii.  xv. 

overawed  by  it ;  pliilosophers  dared  not  question  it.  England 
believed  itself  free  from  bigotry ;  and  its  mind  had  bowed  to  a 
now  idolatry.  Now  was  quickened  the  inquisition  by  authority 
into  American  industry,  of  which  every  governor  was  enjoined 
to  report  the  condition.  Spain  had  never  watched  more  jeal- 
ously the  growth  of  free  opinion,  thai  British  statesmanship 
the  development  of  colonial  enterprise.  Ireland,  which  had 
been  excluded  from  the  American  trade  as  carefidly  as  France 
or  Portugal,  could  still  iiuport  hops  from  America ;  now  the 
growers  of  hops  in  England  arrogated  the  market  of  the 
sister  kingdom  exclusively  to  themselves.  Bounties  were 
renewed  to  naval  stores,  but  naval  stores  were  enumerated, 
so  that  they  could  be  carried  to  Great  Britain  only.  Debts 
due  in  the  plantations  to  Englishmen  might  be  proved  be- 
fore an  English  magistrate;  and,  overthrowing  the  laws  of 
Virginia,  the  parliament  made  lands  in  the  plantations  liable 
for  debts.  That  America,  the  home  of  the  beavers,  might  not 
manufacture  its  own  hats,  it  was  enacted  that  none  should  be 
hatters,  nor  employed  as  journeymen,  who  had  not  served  an 
a}iprenticeship  of  seven  years ;  that  no  hatter  should  employ 
more  than  two  apprentices ;  that  no  negro  should  serve  at  the 
work ;  that  no  American  hats  should  be  shipped  from  one 
l)lantation  to  another,  nor  be  loaded  u])on  any  horse,  cart,  or 
carriage  for  conveying  from  one  plantation  to  another.  Simi- 
lar rules  were  proposed  for  American  iron;  but  the  English 
ironmongers  asked  for  a  total  proliibition  of  forges ;  and  the 
Englisli  landlords,  of  furnaces  for  preparing  the  rough  mate- 
rial, because  the  fires  in  America  diminished  the  value  of  Brit- 
ish woodlands.     In  the  conflict  the  subject  was  postponed. 

A  measm'c,  adopted  in  1733,  brought  America  nearer  to 
independence.  England  favored  the  islands  more  than  the 
continent ;  for  the  West  Indians  were  as  the  bees  which  bring 
all  their  honey  home  to  the  hive.  Moreover,  the  planters 
dwelt  in  England,  and  held  estates  there  which  gave  them 
weight  in  parliament.  For  many  years,  even  from  the  reign 
of  William  of  Orange,  they  hml  sought  to  prohibit,  as  ""perni- 
cious," all  trade  between  the  northern  colonies  and  the  French 
;md  Spanish  and  Dutch  West  India  islands. 

After  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  the  English  continental  cole- 


THE  COLONIES  DXDER  THE  HOUSE  O'^  HANOVER.  243 

nios  grew  accustoiiied  to  a  modest  commerce  with  the  islands 
of  the  Freiicli  and  Dntcli,  purchasing  of  them  sugar,  rum,  and 
molasses,  in  return  for  jirovisions,  hoi-  cs,  and  lumber.  The 
sugar  colonies,  always  eager  for  themselves  to  engage  in  con- 
traband trade  with  the  Spanish  i>ro\iuce8,  demanded'of  parlia- 
ment a  prohibition  of  all  intercourse  between  the  northern 
colonies  and  any  tropical  i^-iands  but  tiie  British. 

In  the  formation  of  the  colonial  system,  each  European  na- 
tion valued  most  the  colojiies  of  which  the  prod.  ..ts  least  inter- 
fered with  its  own.  Engl;iiid  was  willing,  therefore,  to  check 
the  North  and  to  favor  the  South.  Hence  permission  was 
given  to  the  planters  dI  Carolina,  and  afterward  of  Georgia, 
to  ship  their  rice  dircftly  to  any  port  in  Europe  south  of  Cape 
Finisterre.  Hence,  w  Jien,  in  November  1724,  the  ship-carpen- 
ters of  the  river  Thames  complained  "  (hat  their  trade  was 
hurt,  and  that  their  workmen  emigrated  because  so  many  ves- 
sels were  built  in  New  England,"  the  board  of  trade  supported 
their  complaints;  and  when,  a  few  years  later,  in  imitation  of 
the  French  policy,  liberty  Avas  granted  for  carrying  sugar  from 
the  British  sugar  plantations  directly  to  foreign  markets,  ships 
built  and  ships  owned  in  the  American  plantations  were  ex- 
chidcd  from  the  privilege.  Ilence,  also,  the  tropical  products, 
especially  the  ]iroducts  of  the  cane,  formed  the  central  point  of 
colonial  policy.  To  monopolize  the  culture  of  sugar  and  the 
traffic  in  slaves  became  the  cardinal  object  of  English  commer- 
cial ambition. 

The  great  patron  of  the  islands  against  "  the  continent " 
was  the  irritated  auditor-general  for  the  plantations,  Horatio 
Walpole.  The  house  of  commons,  thirdving  to  adopt  a  com- 
promise between  their  interests,  still  permitted  the  northern 
colonies  to  find  a  market  for  their  fish,  luml)or,  provisions, 
horses,  and  other  produce  in  the  foreign  islands,  but,  in  1 733 
resolved  to  impose  on  tlie  return  cargo  a  discrinn'natin;?  duty. 
"Such  impositions,"  said  Rhode  Island,  in  its  petition  to  the 
house  of  conmions,  "  would  be  highly  prejudicial  to  our  char- 
ter." "The  petition,"  ol)jected  Sir  William  Yonge,  "looks 
mighty  like  aiming  at  independence  and  disclaiming  the  au- 
thority of  this  house,  as  if  this  house  had  not  a  power  to  tax 
them."     "I  hope,"  said  another,  "they  have  no  charter  which 


T 

\ 

1 

' 

t'        ' 

1 

i 

i,im 


i( 


I 


t    i 


241     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    paktiii.;  cii.  xv. 

debars  this  house  from  taxing  them,  as  well  as  any  other  sub- 
jects ; "  while  a  third  held  that,  "  as  the  colonies  are  all  a  part 
of  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  they  are  generally  represented 
in  this  house  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  people  are."  On  the 
other  hand.  Sir  John  Barnard  urged  the  reception  of  the  peti- 
tion, since  its  presentation  "  was  a  direct  acknowledgment  of 
the  authority  of  the  house ; "  and  Pulteney,  Sir  William 
Windham,  and  their  associates,  argued  that  the  petition  should 
at  least  be  read.  But  the  commons  would  receive  none  against 
a  money  bill. 

New  York  esteemed  the  imposition  of  the  proposed  duties 
worse  than  the  prohibition;  its  merchants  appealed  to  the 
equity  of  tlio  house  of  lords,  on  account  of  "  the  inconvenience 
to  trade ; "  and  Partridge,  the  agent  of  the  New  York  mer- 
chants, having  enclosed  their  petition  to  Newcastle,  added: 
'••  The  bill  is  divesting  them  of  their  rights  as  the  king's  natu- 
ral l)()rn  subjects  and  Englishmen,  in  levying  subsidies  on  them 
against  their  consent,  when  tliey  are  annexed  to  no  county  in 
Britain,  have  no  representative  in  parliament,  nor  are  any  part 
of  the  legislature  of  this  kingdom.  It  will  be  drawn  into  a 
precedent  hereafter." 

Petitions,  arguments,  and  appeals  were  disregarded ;  and, 
after  two  years'  discussion,  an  act  of  i)arliament,  recognising  the 
prosperity  of  "  the  sugar  colonies  in  America  as  of  the  great- 
est consequence  to  the  trade  of  England,"  "  gave  and  granted  " 
a  duty  of  ninepenco  on  every  gallon  of  mm,  sixjience  on  every 
gallon  of  molasses,  and  five  shillings  on  every  'iindred- weight 
of  sugar  imported  from  foreign  colonies  into  any  of  the  British 
plantations.  The  penalties  under  the  act  were  recoverable  in 
the  courts  of  admiralty. 

Here  was  an  act  of  the  British  parliament,  to  be  executed 
by  officers  of  royal  appoiucUient,  levying  a  tax  on  consum|)tion 
in  America.  In  England,  it  was  afterward  ap])ealed  to  as  a 
precedent ;  in  America,  the  sixijence  duty  on  molasses  had  the 
effect  of  a  prohibition,  and  led  only  to  clandestine  importa- 
tions. The  enactment  had  its  motive  in  the  desire  to  secure 
the  monopoly  of  the  colonial  market  to  the  British  sugar  plan- 
tations ;  and  failed  entirely  in  its  purpose.  No  money  wont 
into  the  British  treasury.     The  British  officials  sent  over  to 


THE  COLONIES  UNDEIi  THE   HOUSE  OF  HANOVER.  245 

America  to  coll(  nt  a  revenue  seized  the  opportunity  to  enrich 
tlieniselves  by  connivance  at  free  trade  in  sugar  and  molasses. 
It  is  Belcher,  a  royal  governor  of  Massachusetts,  who  wrote : 
"  No  prince  ever  had  such  a  crew  of  villains  to  betray  his  in- 
terests and  break  the  acts  of  trade."  This  connivance  con- 
tiimed  initil  the  next  generation,  as  we  know  from  Hutchinson, 
and  the  revenue  officers  excused  themselves  because  "  they  were 
(|iiai-tered  upon "  by  their  patrons  in  England  for  all  the  in- 
come that  they  could  gain  honestly. 

In  1740,  Ashley,  a  well-informed  writer,  proposed  to  secure 
a  revenue  by  reducing  the  duty  to  one  half  or  one  third,  or  even 
to  a  sixth,  of  the  old  rate. 

The  inexorable  zeal  which  never  rested  in  its  warfare 
against  the  growth  of  American  manufactures,  slumbered 
over  the  contests  which  arose  between  the  office-holders,  who 
were  always,  without  regard  to  right,  stniggling  for  in- 
creased emoluments,  and  the  colonies,  which  were  careful  to 
restrain  their  cupidity.  The  holders  of  the  offices  themselves 
were  always  on  the  alert  to  identify  their  omi  interest  with 
the  honor  of  the  crown  and  the  power  of  parliament,  but  the 
English  public  looked  upon  the  strife  with  great  indifference. 
A  colonial  legislature  had  but  two  modes  of  effectual  resist- 
ance: one  was  to  be  so  frugal  and  speciiically  exact  in  its 
appropriations  that  they  could  not  be  misused ;  the  other,  to 
keep  the  royal  governor  on  his  good  behavior  by  making  him 
dependent  on  an  annual  grant  for  his  salary  and  its  amount. 
In  Massachusetts,  the  house  never  passed  an  impost  bill  or  bill 
for  the  general  tax  for  the  support  of  government  nor  granted 
a  salary  to  the  governor  for  a  longer  term  than  one  year. 

Within  the  province  of  Maine  there  was  a  reservation  for 
the  benefit  of  the  crown  of  the  pine-trees  in  the  forests  suited 
for  masts.  The  surveyor  of  the  woods  was  charged  with  per- 
mitting such  persons  as  would  pay  him  for  it,  to  cut  down  the 
very  logs  and  timber  which  lie  gave  out  to  l)e  the  king's,  and 
the  house  of  representatives,  after  inquiry,  found  cause  to  con- 
denm  the  surveyor.  The  board  of  trade,  without  entering 
into  any  inquiry,  sent  back  the  accusation  brought  against  the 
surveyor  jis  an  exparte  document.  To  prevent  the  publication 
of  an  answer  by  the  house  to  one  of  his  speeches,  Slmtu  claimed 


I' 


u 


t  \  l> 


!  r  ,r 


I 


1     \1. 


Itl 


fli^ 


240      HRITISir  AMKrtICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     part  mi.;  cii.  xv. 

under  his  instructions  j)()\ver  over  the  press;  with  no  re.sult 
except  tliat,  tlu-ough  the  resistance  which  lie  roused,  the  press 
in  Massachusetts  from  that  time  became  free,     lie  negatived 
the  choice  to  tlio  council  of  Elisha  Cooke,  the  younger,  heir 
to  his  futUoi'h  virtues.     Cooke  was  promptly  chosen  a  repre- 
.'•entaM'  0  f)f  Uoslon,  and,  in   1720,  was  elected  speaker  of  the 
house.      The  governor  disapproval  the  election  ;   tlu;  house 
treated  his  disapproval  as  a  nullity.     The  governor  dissolved 
the  a8send)ly ;  and,  in  July,  the  new  representatives  i)unished 
him  by  reducing  Ir's  lialfyoai-V  gratuity  from  si.\  hunilred  to 
live  hiuidred  jxuinds  in  a  depreciating  currency.     In  the  fol- 
lowing Novend)er,  they  appointed  "one  or  more  meet  per- 
sons" to  inspect  the  forts  and  garrisons  and  the  condition  of 
the  forces  employed  for  protection  against  the  eastern  Indians, 
and  again  curtailed  the  governor's  salary,     lu  May  1721,  they 
would  not  ask  the  governor's  assent  to  their  choice  of  speaker, 
and  refused  to  make  any  grants  of  nioney  for  public  salaries 
until  the  governor  shoidd  accept  tliuii-  acts,  resolves,  and  elec- 
tions.    "  They  are  more  iit  for  the  all'airs  of  farming,"  wrote 
Shute,  "  than  for  the  duty  of  legislators ;  they  show  no  regard 
to  the  royal  prerogative  or  instructions." 

How  to  get  an  American  i-evemie  at  the  royal  disposition 
remained  a  problem.  In  a  report  made  in  Febmary  171'.),  at 
the  comnumd  of  the  board  of  trade.  Sir  William  Keith,  of 
Peimsylvania,  in  concert  with  the  more  discreet  Logan,  ex- 
plained the  rapid  progress  of  the  French,  jwoposed  a  system  of 
frontier  defejice,  and  enforced  the  "  necessity  that  some  method 
be  projected  M'hereby  each  colony  shall  be  obliged  to  bear  its 
proportionable  share  of  expense."  To  accomplish  this  end,  the 
board,  in  September  1721,  brouglit  forward  a  new  system  of 
colonial  administration  by  a  concentration  in  their  own  hands 
of  power  over  the  colonies.  They  recommended  that  the  first 
counuissioner  of  their  board,  like  the  first  lord  nf  the  treas- 
ury and  of  the  admiralty,  should  have  immediate  access  to  the 
sovereign.  As  ''  the  most  effectual  way  "  of  i-uling  in  America, 
they  proposed  to  consolidate  all  the  continental  |)rovinces  under 
the  government  of  one  lord  lieutenant  or  captain-general,  who 
should  have  a  fixed  salary  independent  of  the  pleasure  of  the 
iidiabitants,  and  should  be  constantly  attended  by  two  members 


THE  COLONIES  UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER.  247 

of  each  provincial  afisemhly ;  one  of  the  two  to  bo  elected  every 
year.  Tliiw  general  coinual  niifijlit  "  not  meddle  with  or  alter 
tlie  niaiHior  of  government  in  any  {)rovin(*e,"  hut  HJiould  have 
power  to  allot  to  each  one  its  (piota  of  men  and  money,  which 
the  several  ius8end)lie8  wonld  then  ra'Ho  by  laws. 

Of  the  charter  govennnents  it  wiw  saltl  that  they  bad  neg- 
lected the  defence  of  the  country ;  bad  exercised  ])ower  arbi- 
trarily;  had  disregarded  the  acts  of  trade;  bad  made  laws  re- 
pugnant to  English  legislation  ;  and,  by  fostering  the  numbers 
and  wealth  of  their  inhabitants,  were  creating  formidable  an- 
tagonists to  Eiiglisb  industry.  Moreover,  "  too  great  an  incli- 
nation was  shown  by  them  to  be  independent  of  tiieir  mother 
kingdom."  The  board  of  trade  therefore  advised  "that  the 
charters  should  be  reassuined  to  the  crown,  as  one  of  those  es- 
sential points  without  which  the  colonies  C(udd  never  be  put 
upon  a  right  footing ; "  and  next,  that  "  they  should  bo  com- 
pelled by  proper  laws  to  follow  the  comn\ands  sent  them.  It 
hath  ever,"  they  added,  "  been  the  wisdom  not  only  of  (xreat 
l^ritain,  but  likewise  of  all  other  states,  to  secure  by  ail  possible 
means  the  entire,  absolute,  and  innnediate  dependency  of  their 
colonies."  And  they  ])ressed  for  the  instant  adoption  of  their 
scheme,  which,  like  that  of  lOOC!,  had  some  features  of  a  mili- 
taiy  dictatorship.  It  seemed  "  past  all  doubt  that  a  bill  would 
be  brought  into  the  house  of  commons  at  their  next  session 
to  disfranchise  the  charter  governments." 

At  this  moment  of  dange",  Jeremiah  Dummer,  a  native  of 
Boston,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  college,  now  agent  of  Massa- 
chusetts, came  forward  in  behalf  of  the  ^'ew  England  char- 
ters, menaced  alike  by  parliament  and  by  the  prerogative.  In 
their  "Defence,"  of  which  Lord  Carteret,  afterward  earl  of 
(irranville,  accepted  tiie  de(licati(»n,  he  argued  that  the  three 
Xew  England  colonies  held  their  charters  by  compact,  having 
obtained  them  as  a  consideration  for  the  labor  of  those  who  re- 
deemed the  wilderness  and  annexed  it  to  the  English  domin- 
ions; that  the  charters  did  but  establish  the  political  relation 
between  the  colonies  and  Great  Britain ;  that  the  cro^m,  hav- 
ing itself  no  right  in  the  soil,  neithei-  did  nor  could  grant  it ; 
that  the  Ameiicans  held  their  lands  by  purchases  from  the  na- 
tives and  their  own  industry  and  daring;  tluit,  if  the  planters 


wdM 


;lBt 


[i 


r 


,         ... 


.\1  \ 


248      nUITrSIF  AMKUrOA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    i-aktim.;  oir.  xv. 

Iiiid  roiVHt'UU  that  tlu-ir  privilojjjcri  woiiUl  ha  hucIi  tniiiHitory 
tliiii«^,  tiiey  never  would  have  eii«,'a^'(;(l  in  their  costly  and 
hazardonH  eiiter|)rise ;  that,  hnt  for  them,  France  would  Juivo 
multiplied  its  nettlemeiits  till  she  had  reigned  sole  mistresH  of 


North  Anutrica;  (hat,  far  from  lu'irlectinir  tl 


{i;lorious  deeds  of  their  soldiers,  if  they  nuist  not  shi 


leir  defence,  the 


M(!  m 


isli  annals,  would  consecrate  their 


Mrit- 


meniory  in  their  own  coun- 


try, and  there,  at  least,  tinuismit  their  fame  to  the  latest 
posterity ;  that  the  charters  themselves  contained  the  strongest 
Carriers  apiinst  arbitrary  rule,  in  tlio  aimnal  election  of  magis- 


trates  ;  that  violations  of  the  acts  of  naviyjation,  whicl 


1  e(pui 


occurred  in  every  Hritish  sea|)ort,  were  the  frauds  of  individu- 
als, not  tlie  fault  of  the  connnunity  ;  that,  in  the  existing  state 
of  things,  all  the  ofKcei-s  of  the  revenue  wore  appointed  by  the 
(;ro^vn,  and  all  breaclies  of  the  acts  of  trade  cognizable  oidy  in 
the  court  of  admiralty;  that  colonial  laws,  rei)ugiuint  to  those 
of  England,   far  from  elTecting  a  forfeiture  of  the  charters, 
were  of  themselves,  by  act  of  parliament,  illegal,  null,  and 
void  ;  that  the  crown  had  no  interest  to  resume  the  charters, 
since  it  coidd  derive  no  l)enelit  but  from  the  trade  of  the  colo- 
nies, and  the  nursery  of  trade  Is  a  free  government,  where  tlie 
laws  are  sacre<l ;  tliat  justice  absolntely  forbade  a  bill  of  at- 
tainder against   the   liberties  of     uites ;    that  it  would   l)e  a 
severity  without  a  precedent  if  .i  people  sliould  in  one  day, 
unsunmu)ned  and  uidieard,  1h»  dei)rived  of  all   tlie  valuable 
privileges  wliicli  they  and  their  latliers  had  enjoyed  for  near  a 
hundred  years.     And  as  Wm  plan  of  the  board  of  trade  was 
recommended   by  the  fear  tJiat  the  colonies  would,  "in  the 
course  of  some  years,  throw  oif  their  depeiulence  and  declare 
themselves  a  free  state,"  as   men    in  oflicc^  "  pi-ofessed  their 
belief  of  the  feasibleness  of  it,  and  the  probability  of  its  some 
time  coming  to  pass,"  lie  set  forth  that  the  colonies  would  not 
be  able  to  succeed  in  the  undertaking,  "uidess  they  could  first 
strengthen  themselves  by  a  confederacy  of  all  the  parts;"  and 
that  their  independence  would  be  hastened,  if  "all  the  govern- 
ments on  ihe  continent  be  brought  under  one  viceroy  and  into 
one  assembly." 

Such  were  the  arguments  urged  in   September  1721,  by 
Dummer,  of  Xew  England,  who,  "  in  the  scarcity  of  friends 


THE  COLONIKS   UNDKIt  TIIK  UOVHK  OF   IIAXOVKR.  249 

in  th(.ri(!  p)V('nimentH,"  iruiiied  u  toiiguo  to  aswrt  their  liberties. 
Tint  1)111  for  iihro^'iitirif,'  the  cluirters  was  (lro|)i)f(I.  The  eurl  of 
Stiiir,  who  was  selected  ^,  ;.  the  viceroy  of  Ainerica,  Imviiij^^ 
•lecliiied  the  statioM,  'Aui  seh  jiiio  of  the  ixKird  of  trade  was  n\- 
lowed  to  shmiber.  ^'.i  172..',  the  liberal  Treiu-hard,  wiiose  words 
were  very  widely  rr  »,  ,.;(  ,aw  that  "the  colonies  when  tliey 
jrrew  stron<rer  nii^ht  at.  i  t  to  wean  themselves,"  and  for  tlmt 
very  reason  eonnse'lod  m  ^deration  and  forbearance.  "  It  is  not 
to  he  hoped,"  thus  %  -  ,  ;ned  pnblicly  and  wisely,  "tliat  any 
nation  will  l)o  snbject  to  another  any  lon^a-r  t.'an  it  Hnds  its 
own  acconnt  in  it  and  cannot  help  itself,  Onr  noi-ti'ern  cohinies 
nnist  constantly  incri'aso  in  people,  wealth,  and  pow  "r.  They 
have  donbled  their  inhabitants  since  the  revolntion,  and  in  less 
than  a  century  nui.st  become  powerful  states ;  and  the  mviV 
powerfid  they  /^row,  still  the  more  jn-ople  will  iloch  thither. 
And  there  are  so  many  exigencies  in  all  states,  so  many  foreign 
wars  and  domestic  disturbances,  that  these  colonies  can  never 
want  oi)portunities,  if  they  watch  for  them,  to  do  what  they 
sliall  tiiid  it  their  interest  to  do ;  and,  therefore,  wo  ought  to 
tiike  all  the  precaution  in  our  power  that  it  shall  never  bo 
their  interest  to  act  against  that  of  their  native  country." 

These  words  of  Trenchard  still  nmg  in  the  public  ear,  when, 
in  1723,  Samuel  Shute,  then  the  governor  of  ^Lussachnsotts,  sud- 
denly a])peared  in  England,  having  tied  secretly  from  his  gov- 
ernment.    He  came  to  complain  to  the  king  that  the  n  ^n-esent- 
atives  had  trampled  on  the  prerogative,  had  adjourned  against 
his  will,  had  assendded  again  at  their  own  appointed  time,  and 
liad  gained  to  themselves  a  control  over  the  movements  of 
colonial   troops  and   the   a]ipointment  of  their  conunanders. 
Especially  he  complained  of  "  Boston,  a  town  of  eighteen  thou- 
sand inhabitants."     Its  liberties  Avero  described  as  the  want 
"of  pr()i)er  police ;"  its  ardent  love  of  freedom,  as  ''  a  levelling 
spirit;"  the  conduct  of  its  citizens  as  an  aptitude  "to  bo  nuiti- 
nous ; "   its  influence,  as  swaying  the  conutry  representatives 
"to  make  continual  encroachments  on  the  few  prerogatives 
left  to  the  crowni."     "The  cry  of  the  city  of  Lmdon  was  ex- 
ceedingly against "  the  peoi)le  of  :Massachusetts ;  it  was  feared 
that  the  spirit  of  U'Al  still  lived  beyond  the  Atlantic;  and 
even  Xeal,  the  historian  and  friend  of  New  Eui^land,  censured 


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250      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     paet  hi.  ;  cir.  xy. 

the  younger  Elisha  Cooke,  as  endangering  the  charter.  The 
hoard  of  trade  saw  higli  treason  in  the  interference  of  the  jis- 
sembiy  with  tiie  iniHtia  ;  they  reported  to  tlie  lords  of  council 
that  "the  inhabitants  were  daily  endeavoring  to  wrest  the 
small  remains  of  power  out  of  the  hands  of  the  crown,  and  to 
become  independent  of  the  mother  kingdom."  To  make  the 
dar.ger  apparent,  they  recounted  tlie  populousness  of  the  prov- 
ince, the  strengtli  of  its  militia,  the  number  of  its  mariners- 
they  apprised  the  privy  council  of  the  importance  of  restrain- 
ing "  so  powerful  a  colony  within  due  bounds  of  obedience  to 
the  crown ; "  and,  as  the  only  remedy,  they  demanded,  without 
loss  of  time,  "the  effectual  interposition  of  the  British  legis- 
lature." 

At  a  moment  when  the  administration  of  the  colonies  was 
fraught  with  so  many  difficulties,  Walpole  conferred  the  man- 
agement of  them  with  the  seals  of  the  southern  department  of 
state  on  the  young  duke  of  Newcastle,  who  owed  his  conse- 
epionce  to  the  number  of  members  of  parliament  dependent 
on  him  for  their  return.  lie  ^vas  niled  by  an  insatiable  passion 
for  holding  higli  otKce,  but  was  untainted  by  avarice,  and 
free  from  a  disposition  to  craelty.  He  owecl  much  to  the 
faithful  guidance  and  lidelity  of  his  younger  brother,  Henry 
Pelham,  who  was  already  in  the  ministry,  and  was  one  of 
the  wisest  statesmen  of  his  time.  The  powers  of  jSTewcas- 
tle's  mind  did  not  reach  to  the  formation  of  a  system  of  admin- 
istration ;  he  was  by  nature  led  to  gi't  on  as  he  could  from 
day  to  day,  and  in  difficult  times  he  was  like  the  sti-eam  that 
cuts  its  channel  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance.  Im- 
portuned to  distribute  places  in  America,  he  conferred  office, 
without  a  scruple,  on  men  too  vile  to  be  employed  at  home,  and 
tlien  left  them  to  look  out  for  themselves.  On  the  (piestions 
Avhich  had  been  raised  in  Massachusetts,  the  crown  lawyers 
i,  i  -^  a  report,  deciding  every  vjuestion  against  the  colony,  yet 
nc„  encouraging  harsli  measures  of  redr(;ss.  Newcastle,  ascer- 
taining what  moditieations  in  it:?  constitution  Massachusetts 
would  be  willing  to  accept,  in  August  172<\  gave  an  explanatory 
charter  to  that  pi-ovince,  according  to  which  the  s])eaker  was 
to  l^e  approved  or  disapproved  by  the  higlu'st  executive  officer 
in  the  province,  and  the  representatives  were  t(j  adjourn  them- 


THE  COLONIES  UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER.  251 

selves  not  exceeding  two  days  ^\dtlioiit  leave.  The  arrears  of 
salary  due  from  tliat  refractory  people  to  the  fugitive  Shute  he 
settled  by  a  pension  out  of  the  revenue  of  Barbados,  which 
thus  found  out  liow  unwise  it  had  been  in  granting  the  crown 
a  pei-petual  revenue.  The  instniction  for  the  permanent  grant 
of  a  salaiy  to  the  governor  during  the  time  of  his  service  wa& 
continued;  but  the  governor  was  permitted  to  accept  occa- 
sional grants  if  he  could  do  no  better. 

At  the  time  of  a  stormy  altercation  in  Jamaica,  the  crown 
lawyers  were  asked  if  the  Icing  or  his  privy  council  nad  not  a 
right  to  levy  taxes  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Jamaica ;  and,  in 
May  1724,  Sir  Philip  Yorke,  afterward  Lord  Ilardwicke,  and 
Sir  Clement  Wearg  rephed :  "  If  Jamaica  is  to  be  considered 
as  a  colony  of  English  subjects,  they  cannot  be  taxed  but  by 
the  pariiament  of  Great  Britain,  or  some  representative  body 
of  the  peojile  of  the  island."     Proposals  for  taxing  the  colonies 
by  act  of  parliament  were  not  wanting ;  but  from  the  govern- 
ment they  received  no  support.     "  I  will  leave  the  taxing  of 
the  British  colonies,"  such  are  the  words  attributed  to  Sir 
Robert  Walpole  toward  the  close  of  his  minictry,  and  such 
certainly  wore  his  sentiments,  "  for  some  of  my  successors,  who 
may  have  more  courage  than  I  have,  and  be  less  a  friend  to 
conmierce  than  I  am.     It  has  been  a  maxim  with  me,"  he 
added,  ''  to  encourage  the  trade  of  the  American  colonies  to 
the  utmost  latitude— nay,  it  has  been  necessary  to  pass  over 
some  irregidarities  in  tlieir  trade  with  Euro])e ;  for,  by  en- 
couraging them  to  an  extensive,  growing  foreign  commerce,  if 
they  gain  five  hundred  thousand  jxjunds,  I  am  cun\-inced  tliat, 
m  two  yeai>,  afterward,  full  two  Inmdrcl  and  lifty  thousand 
pounds  of  this  gain  will  ])e  in  his  maj<5sty"s  exchequer  by  the 
labor  and  produce  of  this  kingdom,  as  inmiense  cpiantities  of 
every  kind  of  our  manufactures  go  thither;  and,  as  they  in- 
crease in  the  foreign  American  trade,  more  of  our  produce  will 
be  wanted.     This  is  taxing  them  mur-.'  agreeably  tu  tiieir  own 
constitution  and  laws." 

Once  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  by  petition  before 
the  lower  house  of  pariiament,  brought  thequesti<.n  of  its  riglit 
to  dispose  (jf  all  money.  Tlie  house,  after  debate,  dismi.-^ed 
the  petition,  as  "frivolous  and  groundless,  a  high  insult  uixm 


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252     BKITLSir  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.     paut  in.;  cu.  iv. 

]iis  niajcsty'rt  jrovcrnment,  iind  toncHn^^j  to  shako  off  the  do- 
peiideiicv  of  tlie  colony  upon  tlio  kingdom,  to  whieli  l)y  law 
and  nn;lit  tli'jy  ought  to  hv.  8uhject."  There  tlie  Ktrifo  ended. 
AVhon,  in  17''ir),  lielcher,  a  later  governor,  was  allowed  to  ac- 
cept his  salary  hy  an  ainiual  vote,  he  eonfesHed  himself  (hs- 
f)osed  to  let  the  assend»lv  "do  the  king's  husiness  in  their  owii 
way,"  with  no  hint  as  to  the  fashion  of  it  but  that  given  hy 
the  duchess  of  Kendall  to  the  goldsmith,  when  the  late  kino- 
promised  her  a  set  of  gold  plate :  "Make  them  thick  and  get 
them  done  out  of  hand." 

AVhile  the  nunistry  sought  to  avoid  contention  with  tl'.o 
eolonies.no  niemherof  the  hoard  of  trade  exercised  more  influ- 
ence than  Martin  Bladen,  who,  in  171!),  had  been  successor  to 
Joseph  Addisoii,  and  who  remained  ;it  tlu'  l)oard  almost  forty 
years,  lie  often  expressed  the  conviction  that  "the  colonies 
desired  to  set  up  for  themselves."  "  Massachusetts,"  he  as- 
sured A'ewcastle,  in  October  17-10,  "is  a  kiiul  of  conunon- 
wealth,  Avhere  the  king  is  hardly  a  stadholder."  Belcher  do- 
scribes  him  as  a  "proud,  imperiors  creature  who  lived  upon 
raphie,  and  yet  from  his  haughtiness  died  a  beggar."  Wlmi  n 
(juestion  arose  as  to  the  boundary  line  wliich  divided  New 
Hampshire  from  Massachusetts,  he  obtained  an  arbitrary  de- 
cree, which  awarded  to  New  Hampshire  far  more  than  that 
government  claimed.  Massachusetts  employed  one  of  its  om'ii 
sons,  the  able  and  cultivated  Thomas  Hutchinson,  to  protest 
against  the  decision;  but  he  was  more  intent  on  making  friends 
for  himself  than  suppoi-ting  the  rights  of  his  native  colony; 
and  the  deerv",  though  wantoidy  unjust,  was  enforced.  En- 
larged by  ten-itory  from  Massachusetts,  New  llanqishire,  in 
1741,  was  erected  into  a  separate  government,  the  only  i-oyal 
government  in  New  Kngland.  In'nning  Wentworth,  its  first 
governor,  a  supporter  of  the  church  of  England  and  of  king- 
ly authority,  iu-riving  in  his  province  in  dune  1741,  "found 
scarcely  the  shadow  of  prerogative."  Jhit  he  promised  "to 
introduce  gradually  the  rights  of  the  crown." 

It  was  in  later  tinu's  recalled  to  mind  that  Sanuud  Adams, 
a  young  man  of  Hoston,  when  in  174:)  he  took  the  degree  of 
^Master  at  Harvard  college,  ])roposed  the  ((uestion  whether  it  is 
lawful  to  resist  the  suin-eme  magistrate  if  the  conunonwealtli 


THE  COLONIES   UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER.  253 

cannot  be  otherwise  preserved,  and  maintained  the  affirmative 
of  the  question. 

The  iidniini.sti-ation  in  England  engaged  wilfully  in  a  strife 
with  Connecticut,  where  the  freeholders  divided  their  lands 
iiinoug  their  children.  In  regard  to  intestate  estates,  its  law 
was,  in  1728,  annulled  in  England;  and  the  English  law, favor- 
ing the  eldest-born,  was  declared  to  be  in  force  among  them. 
The  conflict  was  jirotracted  through  more  than  twenty  years 
l)efure  the  British  government  receded  from  the  vain  project 
of  enforcing  English  rules  of  inheritance  of  land  on  the  hus- 
bar^lnien  of  Kew  England. 

In  Sei)tember  1720,  William  Buniet,  the  son  of  Bishop 
Bni-net  and  godson  of  William  III.,  entered  upon  the  govem- 
meiit  of  New  York,  Inirdened  by  instnictious  from  England 
to  keep  alive  the  assembly  which  had  been  chosen  several 
years  before.  This  he  did,  to  the  great  discontent  of  the  peo- 
l)le,  until  it  had  lasted  more  than  eleven  yeai's.  He  further 
provoked  invincible  opposition  by  Ms  zeal,  under  the  strict 
coininands  of  the  lords  of  the  treasury,  to  obtain  for  Horatio 
^\'ali)o]e  his  sinecure  penpiisites  as  auditor-general.  More- 
over, he  supi)orted  the  court  of  chancery,  of  which  he  as  gover- 
nor was  the  chancellor.  But  he  Avas  intelhgent,  and  free  from 
avarice.  It  was  he  avIio  took  possession  of  Oswego,  and  he 
"  left  no  stone  unturned  to  defeat  the  French  designs  at  Ni- 
agara." Nevei-theless,  for  all  his  merit,  in  1728,  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  Massachusetts  to  make  way  for  the  groom  of  the 
chamber  of  George  II.  while  he  was  prince  of  Wales. 

iU  the  time  when  the  ministry  were  warned  that  "the 
American  assemblies  aimed  at  nothing  less  tlian  being  inde- 
pendent of  Great  Britain  as  fast  as  they  conld,"  Newcastle 
sunt  as  governor  to  A'ew  York  and  New  Jersey  the  dull  and 
ignorant  John  i»Iontgomerie.  Sluggish,  yet  humane,  the  pau- 
I»er  chief  magi-.r.ti>  had  no  object  in  America  l)ut  to  get 
nioue.  ;  and  lie  OrA'aptd  contests  with  the  legislatures  by  gir- 
ing  way  to  them  in  all  things.  Owning  hhnself  miqualitied, 
he  ref'ised  !>  act  .as  chancellor  until  enjoined  by  special  orders 
from  E?\-'  -iJ.     He  died  in  office  in  1731. 

His  successor,  in  1732,  was  William  Ci^'^by,  a  brother-in- 
law  of  the  Kuii  of  Halifax,  and  connected  with  Newcastle.     A 


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254      HRITISII  AMEUIOA  FROM  1088  TO  1748. 


VMiT  III.;  oi:.  XV. 


hoistcTous  and  iiTit;iI)le  iuan,  br'tlvcii  in  liis  fortunes,  liiiviiiir  lit. 
tlo  undtTstaiKlin.''  and  no  Kense  of  decorum  or  of  virtue,  jio 
iiad  been  Hont  over  to  elutcli  at  gain.  Few  men  did  more  to 
liiuston  colonial  emaneipatioii,  Ineapahle  of  a  political  system 
he  removed  Morris,  the  royalist  chief  justice  of  New  York,  for 
what  the  privy  council  pronounced  insutlicient  reasons,  and  jMit 
James  I  )elance_y  in  his  place.  "To  deter  others  from  hcino; 
advocates  for  the  iJoston  p'-inciples,"  he  dii^missed  from  the 
council  .lames  Alexander  and  the  ehler  William  Smith,  who 
plaimed  for  New  York  the  system  of  annual  irrants  of  sup- 
port. ''Oh,  that  I  could  see  them  on  a  gallows  at  the  fort 
.uate!"  was  the  "highest  wish"  of  lus  wife,  whose  grandson, 
the  duke  of  (Irafton,  iu  less  thaii  forty  years,  became  Ea<"-- 
land's  i)rime  minister. 

To  gain  very  great  penpusites,  he  f(»llowed  the  precedent 
of  Andrort  in  Massachusetts  in  the  days  of  the  Stuarts,  and  in- 
sisted on  new  surveys  of  lands  and  ni»w  grants,  in  lieu  of  the 
old.  To  the  objection  of  acting  against  law,  hi'  answered: 
"  Do  you  think  I  mind  that  ^  I  have  a  great  interest  in  Km^- 
land."  The  courts  of  law  were  not  j)liable ;  and  Oosby  dis- 
placed ;aul  ap[)ointe(l  judges,  without  soliciting  the  consent  of 
the  council  or  waiting  for  the  apju'ohation  of  the  sovereign. 

Complaint  could  be  heard  oidy  through  the  ^u'ess,  .i. 
newspa[>er  was  established  to  defend  the  popular  cause;  iK 
iu  November  IT-'U,  about  a  year  after  ib'.  establishment,  t>- 
printrr,  John  Peter  Zenger,  a  (lerman  by  birth,  who  had  been 
an  ap|)rentice  to  the  famous  prink>r,  William  Bradford,  and 
afterward  his  partner,  was  imprisoned,  by  an  order  of  the 
cuuneil,  on  tlu"  charge  of  jniblishiTig  false  and  seditious  libels. 
The  grand  jury  wt.uld  find  no  bill  against  him,  and  the  at- 
torney-general iiled  an  information.  The  counsel  of  Zen««-cr 
took  exceptions  to  the  commissions  of  the  judges,  because 
they  niti  during  pleasure,  ami  because  they  had  been  granted 
without  the  consent  of  council.  The  angrv  judge  met  tiie 
objection  by  disbarring  .lames  Alexander  who  olTerod  it, 
though  he  stood  at  the  head  of  his  profession  in  Ne^v  York 
'.'  sagacity.  ]>enetration,  and  a[)i)lication  to  business.  .\11 
ti  e  central  colonies  regarded  the  cimtroversy  as  their  ow?i. 
At  the  trial  the  publishing  was  confessed;  but  the  aged  and 


TlIK  COLONIES   UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER.  255 

voiioral)lo  Aiidrow  Tlamilton,  wlio  came  from  Philacle]i)]iia  to 
jjloiid  for  Zcii^r(.r,  justiiied  tlie  publication   hy  asserting  its 
tnith.      "Y(.ii   cannot   be  admitted,"  interrupted   tlie   chief 
justice,  "  to  give  tlie  truth  of  a  libel  in  evider  .e."    "  Then," 
Haid   Hamilton  to  the  jury,  "we  appeal  to  you  for  witnesses 
of  the  facts.     The  jury  Iiave  a  right  to  determine  both  tlie 
law  and  the  fa(-t,  iind  they  ought  to  do  so."     "Tlie  (piestiou 
before  you,"  he  a(hled,  "  is  not  the  cause  of  a  poor  printer, 
nor  of  New  York  alone ;  it  is  the  cause  of  li])erty.     Every 
man  who  prefers  freedom  to  a  life  of  shivery  will  bless  and 
lienor  you  as  men  who,  by  an  impartial  verdict,  lay  a  nolile 
foundation  for  securing  to  ourselves,  our  posterity,  and  our 
neighbors  that  to  which  nature  and  the  honor  of  our  coun- 
try have  given  us  a  right— the  liberty  of  oi)posing  arbitrary 
ixnver  by  speaking  and  writing  tnith."     The  jury  gave  tlieir 
vonlict,  "Not  guilty."     Hamilton  received  of  the  common 
council  of   New   York   the  franchises  of  the  city  for  "his 
learned  and  generous  defence  of  the  rights  of  mankind  and 
the  liberty  of  the  press." 

When,  in  1730,  on  the  death  of  Cosby,  Chrke,  tlie  deputy 
of  the  auditor-general,  Horatio  Walpolc,  became  li'3Utenant- 
governor  of  New  York,  he,  too,  could  ol)tain  no  (jbedienee  to 
the  king's  instructions.     "  Since  treason  has  been  conmiitted, 
he  wrote  to  the  board  of  trade,  "examples  should  be  made."' 
In  vain  did   ho  dissolve  one  assembly.    "No  government," 
thus,  in  September  17-? 7,  did  the  new  assembly  address  lain, 
"no  govermuent   can    be  safe  without   proi^er  checks  upon 
those  intrusted  with  powei-.     AVe  tell  yon,  you  are  not  to  ex- 
pect tliat  we  either  will  raise  sums  unfit  to  be  raised,  or  put 
v.hatwe  shall  raise  into  the  power  of  a  governor  to  misap- 
ply, if  we  can  i*revent  it;  nor  shall  \vv  make  up  any  other  de- 
ficiencies than  what  we  conceive  are  fit  and  just  to  be  paid,  or 
continue  what  support  and  revenue  we  sliall   raise  for  any 
longer  time  than  one  year;  nor  do  we  think  it  convenient  to 
do  even  that.  ;:nti]  such  laws  are  passed  as  we  conceive  to  be 
necessary  fox  tl  ■  safety  of  t)ie  i'lhabitants  of  this  colonv,  who 
have  reposed  a  trust  in  us  for  that  only  ])uri)ose,  and,  by  the 
gmce  of  God,  we  will  e..-:  >avor  not  to  deceive  them."     (iarke 
submitted,  and,  bartering  law  against  law,  consented  to  a  bill 


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25G     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    part  iii.;  en.  xv. 

for  triennial  assemblies.  In  1 743,  the  term  of  the  New  York 
assembly  Avas  iixed  by  its  own  act  at  seven  years,  as  in  England. 
The  claim  of  Horatio  Walpole  was  paid  him  by  the  crown  offi- 
cers in  defiance  of  the  acts  of  the  colony. 

Parliament,  in  1721),  had  ratified  the  royal  purchase  of 
South  Carolina.  The  royal  government  had  hardly  been  in- 
stituted and  an  assembly  convened,  before  it  was  said  that 
the  governor  could  not  procure  a  fixed  salary;  nor  "get  a 
fair  rent-roll  by  any  means  in  that  country." 

In  North  Carolina,  things  stood  even  worse  for  royalty. 
On  the  transfer  of  its  domain  from  proprietaries  to  the  khig, 
the  temporary  governor  was  making  haste,  by  secret  grants,  to 
dispose  of  lands  without  bargain  for  quit-rent  or  price,  even 
issuing  blank  patents.  To  organize  this  govenimcnt,  where 
so  much  prudence  was  recpiired,  Newcastle  sent  a  man  who 
was  passionate,  corrupt,  ignorant,  and  intemperate.  In  Feb- 
ruary 1731,  he  \VYotii  to  his  patron  that  "the  people  of  North 
Carolina  were  neither  to  be  cajoled  nor  outwitted ;  whenever 
a  governor  attempts  to  effect  anything  by  these  means,  he 
will  lose  his  labor  and  show  his  ignorance."  The  lirst  assem- 
bly which  he  convened  directed  its  attention  to  grievances ; 
the  country  languished  under  the  exactions  of  oppressive  fees ; 
and  all  his  power  was  exerted  to  deny  the  right  of  instituting 
intpiry  or  exi)ressing  complaint.  Tlie  re[>resentatives  were 
altogether  and  undeniably  in  the  right ;  yet  the  executive 
proceeded  so  far  in  obloquy  and  reproof,  that  the  first  royal 
legislature  separated  without  enacting  a  huw 

The  assembly,  having  framed  the  rent-roll  in  January  1735, 
would  not  permit  the  council  to  amend  it.  The  governor,  who 
had  no  other  resource  for  his  salary,  attempted  to  force  the 
payments  by  instituting  a  court  of  exchequer.  At  a  session  in 
March  1737,  the  assembly  imprisoned  the  king's  officers  for 
distraining  for  rent ;  and,  in  its  turn,  was  dissolved,  leaving 
North  Carolina  without  a  revenue,  its  officers  without  pay. 

Virginia  had  no  special  subject  of  contest  with  the  crown; 
and  alone  of  all  the  colonies  it  had  no  paper  money.  Until 
1721,  color  made  no  distinction  in  the  right  of  the  freeman  to 
exercise  the  elective  franchise.  In  lliat  year,  for  the  lirst  lime, 
a  clause,  disfranchising  free  negroes,  nmlattoes,  and  Indians, 


THE  COLON]-.  3  UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  KANOVER.  257 

was  inserted  in  :  law  for  tlie  bettor  government  of  negroes. 
Tlie  act  being  -,  fei-red  in  England  to  the  lawyer,  Richard 
West,  for  revision,  he  reported  against  the  disfranchising 
clause,  saying:  -Although  I  agree  that  slaves  are  to  be 
treated  in  such  n  manner  as  the  proprietors  of  them  may 
tLiuk  it  necessary  for  their  security,  yet  I  cannot  see  why 
one  freeman  sliould  be  used  worse  than  another  merely  upon 
account  of  his  coinplexion."  "^  But  the  government  took  no 
notice  of  the  objection,  and  the  disfranchising  clause  was 
allowed. 

The  danger  that  most  alanned  the  people  of  Pennsylvania 
was  the  piohibition  of  manufactures.  "Some  talk  of  an  act 
oi  parliament,  '  observed  the  mildly  conservative  Logan,  in 
1728,  "  to  proliihit  our  making  bar  iron,  even  for  our  own  use. 
Scarce  anything  could  more  eiiectually  alienate  the  minds  of 
the  people  in  these  parts,  and  shake  their  dependence  upon 
Britain."  In  Pennsylvania,  there  existed  the  fewest  checks 
on  tiie  power  of  the  people.  "Popular  zeal  raged  as  high 
there  as  iu  any  country ; "  and  Logan  wrote  despondiugly  to 
tlic  proprietary :  " '  Liberty  and  i)rivileges '  are  ever  the  cry." 
"  This  government  under  you  is  not  i)ossibly  tenable  ^vithout 
a  miracle."  The  worid  was  inexperienced  in  the  harmlessness 
of  the  ferment  of  the  public  julnd,  where  that  mind  deliberates, 
decides,  and  governs. 

To  the  thnid  of  that  day  there  seemed  "  a  real  danger  of 
insurrection."  The  assemblies  were  troublesome ;  the  spirit  of 
insubordination  grew  by  indulgence;  "squatters"  increased 
so  rapidly  that  their  number  tlireatened  to  become  their 
secm-ity.  And  Maryland  was  as  restless  as  Pennsylvania. 
Logan  could  not  shake  olf  distnist.  With  "  a  long  enjoyment 
of  a  free  air  and  almost  unrestrained  liberty,"  wrote  he,  "  we 
must  not  have  the  least  appearance  even  of  a  militia,  nor  any 
other  otHcers  than  sheriifs  chosen  by  the  multitude  themselves, 
and  a  few  constaljles,  part  of  themselves,  to  enforce  the  powers 
of  government ;  to  which  add  a  most  licentious  use  of  think- 
ing, in  relation  to  those  jwwers,  most  industriously  inculcated 
and  fomented."  The  result  was  inexplicable  on  the  old  theo- 
ries cf  govermnent.     "  One  perplexity  had  succeeded  another, 


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258      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1083  TO  1748.    pabtiii.;  on.  xv. 

as  waves  follow  waves  in  tlie  sea,  while  the  settlement  of  Penn 
had  thriven  at  all  times  since  its  beginning." 

To  free  schools  and  colleges  the  periodical  press  had  Ijeen 
added,  and  newspapers  began  their  office  in  America  as  the 
ministers  to  cnriosity  and  the  guides  and  organs  of  opinion. 
Philadelphia  received  a  printer,  in  Avhoni  it  was  to  iind  a 
statesman.     On  the  twenty-fourth  of  April,  in  1704,  the  Bos- 
ton "News-Letter,"  the  first  ever  published  on  the  western 
continent,  saw  the  light  in  the  metropolis  of  New  England. 
In  1719,  it  obtained  a  rival  at  Boston,  and  was  imitated  at 
Philadelpliia.     In  17i(),  the  number  of  newspapers  in  the  Eno-- 
lish  colonies  on  the  continent  had  increased  to  eleven,  of  which 
one  appeared  in  South  (^arolina,  one  in  Virginia,  tlu'ee  in 
Pennsylvania — one  of  them  being  in  German — one  in  New 
York,  and  the  remaining  live  in  Boston.     The  sheet  at  first 
used  was  but  of  the  foolscap  size ;  and  but  one,  or  even  but  a 
half  of  one,  was  issued  weekly.     The  papei-s  sought  support 
rather  by  modestly  telling  the  news  of  the  day  than  by  engag- 
ing in  conflicts ;  they  liad  no  pohtical  tlieories  to  enforce,  no 
revolutions  in  faitli  to  hasten.     At  Boston,  indeed,  where  tlic 
pulpit  had  marshalled  Quakers  and  witclies  to  the  gallows,  the 
New  England  "  Courant,"  the  fourth  American  periodical,  was, 
in  August  1721,  established  l)y  James  Franklin  as  an  organ  of 
independent  opinion.     Its  temporary  success  was  advanced  by 
Benjamin,  his  ])rother  and  apprentice,  a  boy  of  fifteen,  wlio 
wrote  for  its  columns,  worked  in  composing  the  types  as  well 
as  in  printing  off  the  sheets,  and,  as  carrier,  distributed  the 
papers  to  the  customers.     The  sheet  satii'ized  hypocrisy,  and 
spoke  of  religious  knaves  as  of  all  knaves  the  worst.     Tliis 
was  described  as  tending  "  to  abuse  the  ministers  of  religion  in 
a  manner  which  was  intolerable."     "I  can  well  remember," 
writes  Increase  Mather,  then  more  than  fourscore  years  of  ago, 
"when  the  civil  government  would  have  taken  an  effectual 
course  to  suppress  such  a  cursed  libel."    In  July  1722,  a  resolve 
passed  the  council,  appointing  a  censor  for  tlie  press  of  James 
Franklin ;  but  the  house  refused  its  concurrence.     The  minis- 
ters persevered  ;  and,  in  January  1723,  a  connnittee  of  inquiry 
wa£  raised  by  the  legislature.     Benjamin,  being  examined,  es- 
caped with  ;m  admonition ;  Jjunes,  the  pubHsher,  refusing  to 


THE  COLONIES   UNDER  THE   HOUSE  OF   HANOVER.  259 

discover  tlie  aiitlior  of  tlie  offwicc,  was  kept  in  jail  for  a  month ; 
liis  paper  was  censured  as  reflecting  injuriously  on  the  rev- 
erend ministers  of  the  gospel ;  and,  by  vote  of  the  house  and 
cuuneil,  he  was  forbidden  to  print  it,  "  except  it  bo  iirst  super- 
vised." 

Vexed  at  the  arbitrary  proceedings,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
tl It'll  but  seventeen  years  old,  in  October  1723,  sailed  clandes- 
tinely for  New  York,  poinding  there  no  employment,  he 
oru^sL'd  to  Ainboy ;  went  on  foot  to  the  Delaware ;  for  want 
of  a  wind,  rowed  in  a  boat  from  Burlington  to  rhiladeli:>hia ; 
and  bearing  marks  of  his  labor  at  the  oar,  weary,  hungry, 
JKiving  for  his  whole  stock  of  cash  a  single  dollar,  the  runaway 
aiiprentice— the  pupil  of  the  free  schools  of  Boston,  rich  in 
the  liouiidless  hope  of  youth  and  the  unconscious  power  of 
imidest  genius — stepped  on  shore  to  seek  food  and  occupation. 

On  the  dee])  foundations  of  sobriety,  frugality,  and  indus- 
try, the  young  journeyman  built  his  fortunes  and  fame ;  and 
he  soon  came  to  have  a  printing-office  of  his  o^vti.     Toiling 
early  and  late,  with  his  own  hands  he  set  types  and  worked  at 
tlie  press ;  with  his  own  hands  would  trundle  to  the  office  in  a 
wlieelbarrow  the  reams  of  paj^er  which  he  was  to  use.     His 
iiigL'iiuity  was  such  that  he  could  form  letters,  make  types  and 
woodcuts,  and  engrave  vignettes  in  copper.     The  assembly  of 
Pennsylvania  chose  him  its  printer.    lie  planned  a  newspaper ; 
and,  when  he  became  its  i)roprietor  and  editor,  he  defended 
freedom  of  thought  and  speech,  and  the  hialienable  power  of 
tliL'  people.      He  proposed  improvements  in  tlie  schools  of 
Phil;i(lf]i)liia,  invented  the  system  of  subscription  libraries,  and 
liiid  the  foundation  of  one  that  was  long  the  most  considerable 
in  America;  he  suggested  the  establishment  of  an  academy, 
which  has  ripened  into  a  university;  and  gathered  a  philo- 
S(ii)hieal   society  for   the   advancement  of   science.      The  in- 
telligent and  highly  euhivated  Logan  bore  testimony  to  his 
merits :  "  Our  most  ingenictus  printer  lia«  the  clearest  under- 
standing, Avith  extreme  modesty,     lie  is  certainly  an  extraor- 
dinary man ; "  "  of  a  singularly  good  jndgment,  but  of  equal 
njo-lesty ;"  "excellent,  yet  humble."     "  f)o  not  imagine,"  he 
ad  Is,  "  that  I  overdo  in  my  ehanicter  of  Benjamin  Franklni, 
fer  I  am  rather  short  in  it."     AVhen  the  students  of  nature 


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200      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     p.vrt  hi.  ;  en.  xy. 

])ogaTi  to  investigate  the  wonders  of  electricity,  FnvTiklin  ex- 
celled all  olwervei-s  in  the  simplicity  and  lucid  exposition  of 
Lis  experiments,  and  in  "  sagacity  and  power  of  scientific  gen- 
eralization." It  was  he  who  first  explained  thunder-gusts  and 
the  northern  lights  on  electrical  principles,  and,  in  the  sunuuer 
of  1752,  going  out  into  the  Jields,  with  no  instrument  but  a 
kite,  no  companion  but  his  son,  established  his  theory  by  ob- 
taining a  lino  of  connection  with  a  thunder-cloud. 

The  son  of  a  rigid  Calvinist,  the  grandson  of  a  tolerant 
Quaker,  Franklin  from  boyhood  was  skeptical  of  tradition  aa 
the  basis  t)f  faith,  and  respected  reason  rather  than  authority. 
After  a  momentary  lapse  into  fatalism,  he  gained  with  in- 
creasing years  an  increasing  trust  in  the  overruling  jirovidence 
of  God.  Adhering  to  none  of  all  the  religions  in  the  colonies, 
he  yet  devoutly  adhered  to  religion.  IJut  though  famous  as  a 
disputant,  and  having  a  natural  aptitude  for  metaphysics,  he 
ol)eyed  the  tendency  of  his  age,  and  sought  by  observation  to 
win  an  insight  into  the  mysteries  of  being.  The  best  observers 
praise  his  method  most.  He  so  sincerely  loved  truth  that,  in 
his  pursuit  of  her,  she  met  him  half-way  ;  so  that  his  mind  was 
like  a  mirror,  in  which  tlie  uui\ crse,  as  it  reHected  itself,  re- 
vealed its  laws.  Ilis  morality,  repudiating  ascetic  severities, 
was  indulgent  to  api)etites  of  which  he  abhorred  the  sway; 
but  in  all  his  career,  the  love  of  man  held  the  mastery 
over  personal  interest.  He  had  not  the  imagination  which  in- 
spires the  bard  or  kindles  tlie  orator;  but  an  excpiisite  pro- 
priety, parsimonious  of  ornament,  gave  ease,  correctness,  and 
graceful  sim])licity  even  to  his  most  careless  writings.  In  life, 
liis  tastes  were  delicate.  He  relished  the  delights  of  music 
and  hamiony.  The  benignity  of  his  manners  made  him  the 
favorite  of  intelligent  society ;  and,  with  healtliy  cheer-ful- 
ness, he  derived  plea'^ure  from  books,  from  ])hilosophy,  from 
conversation — now  administering  consolation  to  the  sorrower, 
now  indulging  in  light-hearted  gayety.  In  his  hitcrcourse,  a 
serene  benevolence  saved  him  from  contempt  of  his  race  or  dis- 
gust at  its  toils.  To  supei-ficial  observers,  he  might  have  seemed 
as  an  alien  from  specidative  tnith,  limiting  himself  to  the  world 
of  the  senses ;  and  yet,  in  study,  and  among  nien,  his  mind  al- 
ways sought  to  discover  and  apply  the  general  principles  by 


THE  COLONIES  UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  UANOVEK.  201 

which  nature  iiiid  aliaira  arc  coutrolled — now  deducing  from 
the  theory  of  cah>ric  iniiirovements  in  lirephices  and  lanterns, 
and  now  advancing  human  freedom  by  lirm  inductions  from 
the  inalienable  rights  of  man.  lie  never  professed  enthusiasm, 
yet  his  hope  was  steadfast;  and,  in  the  moments  of  intense 
activity,  he  from  the  abodes  of  ideal  truth  brought  down  and 
ai)i)lied  to  the  affairs  of  life  the  ])rineiples  of  goodness,  as  un- 
ostentatiously as  became  the  man  who  with  a  kite  and  hemper. 
string  had  drawn  the  lightning  from  the  skies.  He  separated 
himself  su  little  from  his  age  that  he  has  been  called  tlie  repre- 
(.iitative  of  materialism  ;  and  yet,  when  he  thought  on  leligion, 
his  mind  passed  beyond  reliance  on  sects  to  faith  in  (iod  ;  when 
ho  wrote  on  politics,  he  founded  freedom  on  principles  that 
know  no  change ;  when  he  turned  an  observing  eye  on  nature, 
ho  passed  from  the  elT<'et  to  the  cause,  from  individual  appear- 
:uices  to  universal  law,-  when  he  reflected  oti  history,  his  phil- 
osophic mind  found  gladness  and  repose  in  the  clear  anticipa- 
tion of  the  progress  nf  humanity. 

Through  the  press,  no  one  was  so  active  as  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin. His  newspaper  defended  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the 
press,  for  he  held  that  falsehood  alone  dreads  attack  and  cries 
out  for  auxiliaries,  while  truth  sconis  the  aid  of  the  secular  arm 
and  triumphs  by  her  iimate  strength,  lie  rejected  with  dis- 
dain the  "policy  of  arbitrary  government,"  wiiieh  can  esteem 
tnith  itself  to  be  a  Hbel.  Nor  did  he  fail  to  applaud  "  popidar 
governments,  as  resting  on  the  Avisest  reasons."  In  "  the  mul- 
titude, which  hates  and  fears  audution,"  he  saw  the  true  coun- 
terpoise to  unjust  designs;  and  he  trusted  the  nuiss,  as  unable 
"to  judge  amiss  on  any  essential  points."  " The  judgment  of 
a  whole  [)eople,"  such  was  the  sentiment  of  Franldin,  ''if  un- 
biassed by  faction,  undelnded  by  the  tricks  of  designing  men, 
is  infallibli'."  That  the  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of 
CJod  he  declared  to  be  universally  true ;  and,  therefore,  "  the 
])e()])le  cannot,  in  any  sense,  divest  themselves  of  the  supreme 
authority."  Thus  he  asserted  the  coumion  rights  of  mankind, 
by  illustrating  "etenial  tnitlis,  that  cannot  be  shaken  even  with 
the  foundations  of  the  world."  So  was  pubUc  opinion  guided 
in  Peimsylvania  more  than  a  century  ago. 

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262      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    fart  in. ;  ou.  xv. 

Throughout  the  contineut,  the  love  of  freedom  and  the  senti- 
ment of  hidependence  were  gaining  vigor  and  maturity.  They 
were  not  the  offsj)ring  of  deliberate  forethought :  they  grew  like 
the  lilies,  which  neither  toil  nor  spin. 

Parliament  itself  avoided  the  extreme  eonfiict  with  all  the 
colonies.  The  Episcopalians  in  America,  not  then  aware  that 
the  Episcopal  church  could  not  have  great  success  in  America 
while  a  king  was  its  head,  continually  prayed  for  "  a  constitu- 
tion in  church  and  state  as  near  as  possible  conformable  to 
that  of  their  mother  country."  Johnson  asked  for  "  bishops 
and  a  viceroy."  In  1725,  the  ministers  of  Massachusetts,  by  the 
hand  of  Cotton  Mather,  desired  a  synod,  "  to  recover  and  estab- 
lish the  faith  and  order  of  the  gospel."  The  council  assented; 
the  house  referred  the  question  to  its  next  session.  The  bishop 
of  London  anticipated  its  decision;  and  a  reprimand  from 
England  forbade  "the  authoritative"  meeting,  as  a  bad  pre- 
cedent for  dissenters.  With  this  the  interference  ended;  ui 
the  eighteenth  century  there  was  little  to  fear  from  the  exces- 
sive zeal  of  English  cliurchmen.  All  the  time  liberal  opinion 
was  gaining  strength  in  Massachusetts,  and  a  law  of  1729 
relieved  Quakers  and  Baptists  from  parish  taxes. 

A  new  country  desires  credit,  su1)mits  even  to  extortion 
and  expedients  rather  than  renounce  its  use.  Where  nature 
invites  to  the  easy  and  rapid  development  of  its  resources,  hope 
sees  the  opportunity  of  golden  advantages,  if  a  loan  can  be  ob- 
tained. The  first  emissions  of  provhicial  paper  had  tlieir  origin 
in  the  immediate  necessities  of  government ;  next,  in  times  of 
peace,  provinces  issued  bills  of  credit,  redeemable  at  a  remote 
day,  and  put  m  circulation  by  means  of  loans  to  citizer  at  a 
low  rate  of  interest  on  the  mortgage  of  lands.     The  bill 


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themselves  almost  worthless  from  the  remoteness  of  the  day  of 
payment,  were  made  a  lawful  tender.  The  borrower,  who  re- 
ceived them,  paid  to  the  state  annual  interest  on  his  debt ;  and 
this  interest  constituted  a  public  revenue,  obtained,  it  was 
boasted,  without  taxation.  In  1712,  South  Carolina  issued  in 
this  manner  "a  bank"  of  forty-eight  thousand  pounds.  Mas- 
sachusetts, which  for  twenty  years  had  used  bills  of  credit  for 
public  purposes,  in  1714  authorized  an  emission  of  fifty  thou- 
sand pomids  in  bills,  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  five  trustees, 


r  ■  !:   t  *.?: 


THE  COLONIES  UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER.  263 

and  let  out  at  five  per  cent  on  safe  mortgages  of  real  estate,  to 
be  paid  back  in  five  annual  instalments.  Tlie  debts  were  not 
thus  paid  back ;  but  an  increased  clamor  was  raised  for  greater 
omissions.  In  1716,  an  additional  issue  of  one  bundred  thou- 
sand pounds  was  made,  and  committed  to  tlie  care  of  county 
trustees.  The  scarcity  of  money  was  ever  more  and  more  com- 
plained of :  "  all  the  pilver  money  was  sent  into  Great  Britain 
to  make  returns  for  what  was  owing  there."  Paper  money  was 
multiplied  so  lavishly  that,  in  1720,  an  instruction,  afterward 
modified,  but  never  abrogated,  was  issued  to  every  governor  in 
America,  to  consent  to  no  act  for  emitting  bills  of  credit,  ex- 
cept for  the  support  of  government,  without  a  suspending  clause 
till  the  king's  pleasure  should  be  known.  The  instruction  was 
disregarded,  and  the  system  was  imitated  in  every  colony  but 
Virginia.  Rhode  Island,  in  1721,  "  issued  a  bank  of  forty  thou- 
sand pounds,"  on  which  the  interest  was  pa}able  in  hemp  or 
flax.  Franklin,  who  afterward  perceived  the  evil  of  paper 
money,  assisted,  in  1723,  in  introducing  it  into  Pennsylvania, 
where  silver  had  circulated ;  and  the  complaint  was  soon  heard 
that,  "  as  their  money  was  paper,  they  had  very  little  gold  and 
silver,  and,  when  any  came  in,  it  was  accounted  as  merchan- 
dise." 

In  1738,  the  New  England  cun-ency  was  worth  but  one 
hundred  for  five  hundred;  that  of  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland,  one  hundred  for  one  himdred  and 
sixty  or  seventy,  or  two  hundred ;  of  South  Carolina,  one  for 
eiglit;  while  of  North  Carolina,  of  all  the  states  the  least 
connnercial  in  its  character,  the  paper  was  in  London  esteemed 
wonh  but  one  for  fourteen,  in  the  colony  but  one  for  ten. 
Y( ,  parliument  was  not  invited  to  interfere  till  Massachusetts 
established  a  land  bank.  Then  the  house  of  commons  con- 
demned the  mischievous  practice,  and  addressed  the  king  in 
support  of  the  royal  instructions.  Still  the  frenzy  for  paper 
money  defied  the  royal  commands ;  and  the  private  land  bank 
began  to  issue  paper  that  it  never  could  redeem.  Parliament 
interfered,  in  1741,  "  to  restrain  undertakings  in  the  colonies," 
by  enacting  that  the  statute  of  1719,  which  was  passed  after 
the  ruin  of  the  South  Sea  company,  and  which  made  every 
member  of  a  joint-stock  company  personally  liable  for  its  debts, 


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264     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748. 


PART  III.  ;   OH.  XV. 


t!l 


was,  and  had  from  the  first,  been  in  force  in  the  colonies. 
Every  principle  of  public  policy  required  a  check  to  the  issues 
of  paper  money ;  but  nothing  could  have  been  more  arbitrary 
than  to  enact  that  a  statute,  which  had  no  reference  whatever 
to  Massachusetts,  and  which  was  passed  many  years  before,  had 
al]  the  while  been  valid  in  that  colony. 

The  home  government  approved  of  the  establishment  of 
the  fort  of  Oswego,  and  made  a  specific  call  on  nine  states  for 
men ;  on  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland, 
and  Virginia  for  money,  toward  supporting  fortifications  at 
Albany,  Schenectady,  and  Oswego.     Sir  William  Keith,  for- 
merly  surveyor  of  the  customs  for  the  southern  department, 
governor  of  Pennsylvania  for  nine  years,  a  fiery  patriot,  bois- 
terous for  liberty  and  property,  by  which  he  had  meant  more 
paper  money,  was  used  as  the  organ  in  London  for  suggesting 
a  new  plan  of  colonial  administration.     None  of  the  planta- 
tions, he  said,  could  "  claim  an  absolute  legislative  power  with- 
in themselves ;  none  could  e-   le  the  true  force  of  any  act  of 
pai-hament  affecting  them."     To  give  unity  and  vigor  to  the 
colonial  government,  he  repeated  the  advice  of  the  board  of 
trade  to  make  its  first  lord  a  secretary  of  state ;  and  submitted 
to  the  king  'he  inquiry,  "  whether  the  duties  of  stamps  upon 
parchment  and  paper  in  England  may  not,  with  good  reason, 
be  extended  by  act  of  parliament  to  all  the  American  planta- 
tions."   The  suggestion,  which  probably  was  not  original  with 
Keith,  met  at  the  time  with  no  favor.    In  1745,  two  clauses 
were  added  to  a  bill  before  parliament  which  had  the  scope  of 
compelling  the  legislators  to  obey  all  the  orders  and  instructions 
of  the  crown ;  but  the  bill  was  not  carried  through  parliament. 
In  1740,  parliament  enacted  that  foreign  Protestants,  wher- 
ever they  might  bo  bom,  after  a  residence  of  seven  years  in 
any  of  the  colonies,  with  no  absence  for  more  than  two  months 
at  any  one  time  during  that  period,  and  after  subscribing  the 
prescribed  oaths,  "shall  be  deemed,  adjudged,  and  taken  to  be 
natural-bom  subjects  of  the  kingdom." 

This  period  was  marked  by  the  unrivalled  prosperity  of  the 
colonies.  The  population,  which  had  doubled  within  twenty- 
five  years,  grew  rich  through  industry.  Boston  continued  its 
great  manufacture  of  bhips,  and  found  a  market  for  them 


THE   COLONIES  UNDER  THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER.  2G5 

among  the  French  and  Spaniards  in  San  Domingo ;  so  that,  for 
example  in  1738,  there  were  built  in  that  town  forty-one  top- 
sail vessels.  Peace  on  the  eastern  frontier  revived  the  youth- 
ful maritime  enterprise  of  Maine.  Of  Connecticut,  the  swarm- 
ing population  spread  over  its  soil,  and  occupied  even  its  hills ; 
for  its  whole  extent  was  protected  against  the  inroads  of  sav- 
ages. The  selfishness  of  the  governors  of  New  York  and  their 
royalist  party  could  delay,  but  not  prevent,  its  increase.  Penn- 
sylvania, the  land  of  promise,  grew  in  wealth  from  agriculture, 
from  commerce,  from  ship-building,  and  mines  and  manufact- 
ures of  iron.  The  beautiful  valley  of  Virginia  attracted  white 
inhabitants. 

West  of  the  Alleghanics  there  were  no  European  settle- 
ments, except  that  traders,  especially  from  Carolina,  had  ven- 
tured among  the  Indians,  and,  becoming  wild  like  the  men 
with  whom  they  trafficked,  had  estabhshed  their  houses  among 
the  Cherokees,  the  Muskohgees,  and  the  Chicasas.     On  the 
eastern  side  of  the  nunrntains,  the  peopling  of  the  remote  up- 
land interior  began  in  South  Carolina  mth  herdsmen,  who  past- 
ured beeves  upon  natural  grasses,  and  now  and  then  rallied 
their  cattle  at  central  "  Cowpens."    A  British  poet  directed 
the  admiration  of  his  countrymen  to  the  new  English  world. 
Lo !  swanning  southward  on  rejoicing  suns, 
Gay  colonies  extend — the  calm  retreat 
Of  undeserved  distress,  the  better  home 
Of  those  whom  bigots  chase  from  foreign  lands. 
Not  built  on  rapine,  sei-vitude,  and  woe, 
But  bound  by  social  freedom,  firm  they  rise. 
The  progress  of  colonization  was  mainly  due  to  the  rapid 
increase  of  the  early  settlers.     But  the  wars  on  the  continent 
hurried  emigrants  in  nuisses  to  Pennsylvania.     "  We  shall  soon 
have  a  German  colony,"  uTote  Logan,  in  1726,  "  so  many  thou- 
sands of  Palatines  are  already  in  the  country."     The  restric- 
tion on  commerce  and  industry  drove  multitudes  into  exile. 
"  The  whole  North,"  so  the  duke  of  Newcastle,  in  November 
1738,  was  informed  by  letters  from  Boulter  the  primate  of  Ire- 
land, "  is  in  a  ferment  at  present,  and  people  every  day  engag- 
ing one  another  to  go  the  next  year  to  the  West  Indies  "—that 
is,  to  the   British  continental  colonies  in  America.     "The 


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2GG      BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1C88  TO  1748.     i-art  hi.;  on.  xv. 

hnmor  lias  spread  like  a  eon<agioii8  distemper,  and  tl)o  people 
will  hardly  hear  anybody  that  tries  to  cure  them  of  their  mad- 
ness. The  woi-st  is,  that  it  atTeets  only  Protestants,  and  reigni, 
chiefly  in  the  Xorth." 

In  the  following  year  Logan  writes :  "  We  are  very  much 
surprised  at  the  vast  crowds  of  people  pouring  in  upon  us  from 
the  north  of  Ireland."  Scotch  emigrants  who  went  directly 
from  Scotland  brought  with  them  loyalty  toward  the  mother 
country  and  monarchy.  The  Scotch-Irish  Protestants,  disci- 
plined by  disfranchisements  in  civil  life,  home  industry,  and 
trade,  found  a  welcome  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  and  were 
ever  among  the  foremost  of  those  who  in  peace  and  in  war 
struggled  for  right  and  freedom.  The  emigration  of  Irish 
Catholics  was  ah-eady  begun ;  but  from  the  continued  intoler- 
ance of  legislation  in  many  colonies,  it  was  as  yet  chiefly  di- 
rected to  Maryland  and  the  two  provinces  founded  by  Penn. 

The  greatest  of  the  sons  of  Ireland  who  came  to  us  in 
those  days  was  George  Berkeley,  and  he,  like  Penn,  reposed 
hopes  fo:-  humanity  on  America.     Versed  in  ancient  learn- 
ing, exact  science,  and  modem  literature,  disciplined  by  travel 
and  reflection,  adverse  factions  agreed  in  ascribing  to  him 
"  every  virtue  under  heaven."     Cherished  by  those  who  were 
the  pride  of  English  letters  and  society,  favored  with  unsolicit- 
ed dignities  and  revenues,  he  required  for  his  liappiness,  not 
fortune  or  preferment,  but  a  real  progress  in  knowledge.    The 
material  tendencies  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived  were  hate- 
ful to  his  purity  of  sentiment;  and  having  a  mind  kindred 
Avith  Plato  and  the  Alexandrine  philosophers,  witli  Barclay  and 
Malebranche,  he  held  that  the  external  worid  was  wholly  sub- 
ordinate to  intelligence ;  that  tnie  existence  can  be  predicated 
of  spirits  alone.     He  did  not  distrust  the  senses,  being  rather 
a  close  and  exact  obsei-ver  of  their  powers,  and  finely  discrimi- 
nating between  impressions  made  on  them  and  the  deductions 
of  reason  from  those  imi3ressions.     Far  from  being  skeptical, 
he  sought  to  give  to  faith  the  highest  certainty  by  deriving  all 
knowledge  from  absolutely  perfect  intelligence,  from  God.    If 
he  could  but  "  expel  matter  out  of  nature,"  if  he  could  estab- 
lish the  supremacy  of  spirit  as  the  sole  creative  power  and  ac- 
tive being,  then  would  the  slavish  and  corrupt  theories  of  Epi- 


THE  COLONIES  UNDER  THE  noUSE  OF  HANOVER.  267 

cunis  and  of  Ilobbcs  be  cut  up  by  the  roots.  Thus  he  sought 
"gently  to  unbind  the  Hgaraents  M'hich  cluiin  the  soul  to  the 
earth,  and  to  assist  her  flight  upward  toward  the  sovereign 
good."  For  the  application  of  such  views,  Europe  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  offered  no  theatre.  Eegarding  "  the  well-being 
of  all  men  of  all  nations  "  as  the  design  in  which  the  actions  of 
each  individual  should  concur,  he  repaired  to  the  new  hemi- 
spliere  to  found  a  university.  The  island  of  Bermuda,  at 
iirst  selected  as  its  site,  was  abandoned  for  Newport  Avithin 
our  America,  of  which,  from  January  1729  to  midsummer 
1731,  he  was  a  resident.  But  opinion  in  England  did  not 
favor  his  purpose.  "  From  the  labor  r.nd  luxury  of  the  plan- 
tations," English  pohticians  said,  '-'great  advantages  may 
ensue  to  the  mother  country ;  yet  the  advancement  of  liter- 
ature, and  tlie  improvement  in  arts  and  sciences  in  our 
American  colonies,  can  never  be  of  any  service  to  the  Brit- 
ish state."  The  funds  that  had  been  regarded  as  pledo-ed 
to  the  university,  in  which  Indians  were  to  be  trained  in  wis- 
dom, missionaries  educated  for  works  of  good,  science  and 
truth  advanced  and  disseminated,  were  diverted  to  pay  the 
dowry  of  the  princess  royal.  Disappointed,  yet  not  irritated, 
Berkeley  returned  to  Europe,  to  endow  a  library  in  Rhode 
Island ;  to  cherish  the  interests  of  Harvard  college ;  to  gain  a 
right  to  be  gratefully  r'  i  embered  in  Yale  college ;  to  encour- 
age the  foundation  of  a  college  at  New  York.  Advanced  to  a 
bishopric,  the  heart  of  the  liberal  prelate  still  beat  for  Ameri- 
ca, of  which  his  benevolence  had  dictated  this  prophecy: 
In  happy  climes,  the  seat  of  innocence. 

Where  nature  guides,  and  virtue  rules, 
Where  men  shall  not  impose  for  truth  and  sense 

The  pedantry  of  courts  and  schools- 
There  shall  be  sung  another  golden  age — 

The  rise  of  empire  and  of  arts ; 
The  good  and  great  inspiring  epic  rage ; 

The  wisest  heads  and  noblest  hearts. 
Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way ; 

The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day; 

Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last. 


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268    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    pabtiii.;  oa.  xvi. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   BKITISn   BLAVE-TEADE.      COLONIZATION   OF   OEORQIi.. 

The  moral  world  is  swayed  by  general  laws.     They  extend 
not  over  inanimate  nature  only,  but  over  man  and  nations; 
over  the  policy  of  rulers  and  the  opinion  of  masses.    Event 
succeeds  event  according  to  their  influence ;  amid  the  jar  of 
l)assion8  and  interests,  amid  wars  and  alliances,  commerce  and 
conflicts,  they  form  the  guides  of  civilization,  which  mai-shals 
incongruous  incidents  into  their  just  places,  and  arranges  check- 
ered groups  in  clear  and  harmonious  order.     To  discover  the 
tendency  of  the  ages,  research  nmst  be  unwearied,  and  must  be 
conducted  without  a  bias ;  as  the  student  of  natural  history,  in 
examining  even  the  humblest  flower,  seeks  instruments  that 
niay  unfold  its  wonderful  structure,  without  color  and  without 
distortion.     For  the  historic  inquirer  to  swerve  from  exact  ob- 
servation would  be  as  absurd  n^  for  the  astronomer  to  break 
his  telescopes  and  compute  the  path  of  a  planet  by  conjecture. 
Of  success  there  is  a  sure  criterion ;  for,  as  every  false  state- 
ment contains  a  contradiction,  truth  alone  possesses  harmony. 
Truth,  and  tnith  alone,  is  ])ermanent.     The  selflsh  passions  of  a 
party  are  as  evanescent  as  the  material  interests  involved  in  the 
transient  conflict:    they  may  deserve  to  be  described;   they 
never  can  inspire ;  and  the  narrative  Avhich  takes  from  them 
its  motive  will  hurry  to  oblivion  as  rapidly  as  the  hearts  in 
which  they  were  kindled  moulder  to  ashes.     But  facts,  faith- 
fully ascertained  and  placed  in  proper  contiguity,  become  of 
themselves  the  firm  links  of  a  brightly  burnished  chain,  con- 
necting events  vrith  their  causes,  and  marking  the  line  along 
whicli  the  power  of  truth  is  conveyed  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration. 


1789. 


THE  BRITISH  SLAVE-TRADE. 


269 


Events  that  are  past  are  beyond  change,  and,  where  they 
merit  to  be  known,  can  at  least  in  their  general  aspect  l)e 
known  correctly.  The  co'  ..titntion  of  the  hnnian  mind  varies 
only  in  details ;  its  element ,  are  the  same  always ;  and  the  nml- 
titude,  possessing  but  a  comrmation  of  the  powers  and  passions 
of  which  each  one  is  conscious,  is  subject  to  the  same  laws 
which  control  individuals.  Humanity,  constantly  enriched 
and  cultivated  by  the  truths  it  develops  and  the  inventions  it 
aniiisses,  has  a  life  of  its  o^\^l,  and  yet  possesses  no  element 
that  irf  not  common  to  eacli  of  its  members.  By  comj-arison 
of  document  with  document ;  by  an  analysis  of  facts,  and  the 
reference  of  each  of  them  to  the  laws  of  intelligence  wliich  it 
illustrates;  by  separating  the  idea  which  inspires  combined 
action  from  the  fonns  it  assumes ;  by  comparing  results  with 
the  principles  that  govern  the  movement  of  nations— historic 
truth  may  establish  itself  as  a  science. 

The  trust  of  our  race  that  there  is  progress  in  human  af- 
fairs is  warranted.  Universal  history  does  but  seek  to  relate 
"the  sum  of  all  God's  works  of  providence."  In  1739,  the 
first  conception  of  its  office,  in  the  mind  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards,  though  still  cramped  and  per\'erted  by  theological  forms 
not  derived  from  obseiwation,  was  nobler  than  the  theory  of 
Vico :  more  grand  and  general  than  the  method  of  Bossuet,  it 
embraced  in  its  outline  the  whole  "  work  of  redemption  "—the 
history  of  the  influence  of  all  moral  truth  in  the  gradual  re- 
generation of  humanity.  The  New  England  divine,  in  his 
quiet  association  -with  the  innocence  and  simpUcity  of  rural 
life,  knew  that,  in  every  succession  of  revolutions,  the  cause  of 
civilization  and  moral  reform  is  advanced.  "The  new  cre- 
ation," such  are  his  words,  "is  more  excellent  than  the  old. 
So  it  ever  is,  that,  when  one  tiling  is  removed  by  God  to  make 
way  for  another,  the  new  excels  the  old."  "  The  wheels  of 
Providence,"  he  adds,  "  are  not  turned  by  blind  chance,  but 
they  ai-e  full  of  eyes  round  about,  and  they  are  guided  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  Where  the  Spirit  goes,  they  go."  Noth- 
ing appears  more  self-determined  than  the  volitions  of  each 
nidividual ;  and  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  Pi-ovidence 
will  overrule  them  for  good.  The  finite  will  of  man,  free  in 
Its  individuality,  is  in  the  aggregate  subordinate  to  general 


ii 


\  i 


rli 


270    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    part  m, ;  cii.  irvi. 

laws.  This  h  the  reason  why  evil  is  self-destnictivo ;  why 
truth,  when  it  is  once  generated,  is  sure  to  live  forever;  wliv 
froedoni  and  justice,  though  resisted  and  restrained,  renew 
the  contest  from  age  to  age,  confident  that  messengers  from 
heaven  figlit  on  tlieir  side,  and  tliat  the  stars  in  their  courscfj 
war  against  their  foes.  Tliero  would  seem  to  ho  no  harmonv 
and  no  consistent  tendency  to  one  great  end  in  the  confused 
events  of  the  reigns  of  iicorg^  II.  of  En-land  and  Louis  XV. 
of  France,  where  legislation  was  now  surrendered  to  the  mer- 
cantile passion  for  gain,  was  now  swayed  by  the  and)ition  and 
avarice  of  the  mistresses  of  kings  ;  where  tlie  venal  conniption 
o'"  puhlic  men,  the  open  profligacy  of  courts,  the  greedy  cu- 
pidity of  trade,  conspired  in  exercising  dominion  over  the 
civilized  community.  The  political  world  wjis  without  form 
and  void ;  yet  the  Spirit  of  God  was  moving  over  the  chaos 
of  human  passions  and  human  caprices,  bringing  forth  the 
firm  foundacions  on  which  better  hopes  were  to  rest,  and  setting 
in  the  firmament  the  lights  that  were  to  guide  the  nations. 

England,  France,  and  Spain  occupied  all  the  continent, 
nearly  all  the  islands,  of  ]S  orth  America ;  each  established  over 
its  colonies  an  oppressive  metropolitan  monopoly ;  but  Great 
Britain,  while  she  vigorously  enforced  her  owai  acts  of  naviga- 
tion, disregarded  those  of  Spain.  Strictly  maintaining  the 
exclusive  commerce  with  her  own  colonies,  she  coveted  inter- 
course with  the  Si)anish  islands  and  main ;  and  was  al)out  to 
give  to  the  world,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  the  spectacle  of 
a  war  for  trade — a  war  which  hastened  the  downfall  of  com- 
mercial restrictions  and  the  independence  of  America. 

A  pai-t  of  the  holders  of  the  debt  of  Great  Britain  had  been 
incoi-porated  into  a  company,  with  the  exclusive  trade  to  the 
South  Seas.  But  as  Spain  occupied  much  of  the  American 
coast  in  those  seas,  and  claimed  a  monopoly  of  its  commerce, 
the  grant  was  worthless,  unless  that  monopoly  could  be  success- 
fully invaded ;  and  to  begin  this  invasion,  the  commercial  ad- 
vantages conceded  by  the  assiento  treaty  were  assigned  to  the 
South  Sea  company. 

Notwithstanding  the  ill  success  of  its  attempts  to  trade  in 
the  Pacific,  enough  of  the  South  Sea  company  survived  to  exe- 
cute the  contract  for  negroes  and  to  conduct  an  illicit  commerce 


THE  BRITISH  SLAVE-TRADE. 


271 


with  Spanish  Atnorica.  "Ambition,  avanco,  distress,  disap- 
IMjintment,  and  tho  c'()in])li(!ato(l  k-oh  that  tend  fo  render  the 
mind  of  man  uneasy,  filled  all  plar(-s  and  all  liearts  in  the  Eng- 
lisli  nation."  Dreams  of  tho  acquisition  of  Florida,  with  tho 
80I0  use  of  the  Bahama  channel ;  of  the  con(|ue8t  of  Mexico 
iiiid  Peru,  witli  their  real  and  their  imagined  wealth— rose  up 
to  dazzle  tho  restless ;  Jamaica  became  the  centre  of  an  exten- 
sive snuiggl in g  trade;  and  slave-ships,  deriving  their  i)assport 
from  the  assiciito  treaty,  were  the  ready  instruments  of  contra- 
band (!upidity. 

While  tho  Soutli  Sea  company  satisfied  but  imperfectly  its 
passion  for  wealth  by  a  mono])oly  of  tho  supply  of  negroes  for 
the  Spanish  islands  and  main,  tho  African  company  and  inde- 
pendent traders  were  still  more  busy  in  sending  negroes  io  tho 
colonies  of  England.  This  avidity  was  encou  .-aged  by  English 
legislation,  fostered  by  royal  favor,  and  enforced  for  a  century 
by  every  successive  ministry  of  England. 

The  colored  men  who  were  im])orted  into  our  colonies, 
sometimes  by  way  of  the  West  Indies,  and  sometimes,  espe- 
cially for  tho  South,  directly  from  tlie  Old  World,  were  sought 
all  along  tho  African  coast,  for  thirty  degrees  together,  from 
Cnpe  Blanco  to  Loango  St.  Paul's ;  from  the  Great  Desert  of 
Sahara  to  the  kingdom  of  Angola,  or  perhaps  even  to  the  bor- 
ders of  the  land  of  the  Kaffres.    It  is  not  possible  to  relate  pre- 
cisely jj^  ^^,]j,j^  i^j^y  ^^^^y  ^^^j,^  respectively  laden,  from  what 
•  ttages  they  were  kidnapped,  from  what  more  direful 
>?y  were  rescued.     The  tradei-s  in  men  have  not 
1  record  the  lineage  of  their  victims.     They  were 
d  from  gangs  that  were  marched  from  the  far  in- 
terlo-  ^  the  freight  of  a  single  ship  might  be  composed 

of  persons  of  different  languages,  and  of  nations  altogether 
strange  to  each  other.  Nor  was  there  uniformity  of  complex- 
ion;  of  those  brought  to  our  country,  some  were  from  tribes  of 
which  the  skin  was  of  a  tawny  yellow. 

The  purchases  in  Africa  were  made,  in  part,  of  convicts 
punished  with  slavery,  or  a  fine  which  was  discharged  by  their 
sale;  of  debtors  sold,  though  but  rarely,  into  foreign  bondage; 
of  cliildren  sold  by  their  parents ;  of  kidnapped  villagers ;  of 
captives  taken  iu  war.    Hence,  the  sea-coast  and  the  confines  of 


Nii    I 


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272    BRITISH  AMKRIOA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     paktih.;  on.  x\i 

hoHtile  niuions  wore  laid  waste.  But  tliocliief  stmrco  of  supply 
nliko  for  tlie  caravuiiH  of  tho  Moors  atul  for  tlio  Khips  of  Europe 
was  from  the  swarm.s  of  <lioso  born  in  a  htate  of  slavery.  lu 
the  upper  country,  on  the  Senegal  and  the  (taini/ia,  three 
fourths  of  the  iuhahitants  were  not  free ;  and  the  slave's  muster 
was  the  absolute  lord  of  the  slave's  eli.ldren.  In  the  healthy 
and  fertile  uplands  of  Western  Africa,  under  the  tropical  sun, 
the  natural  increiuso  of  tho  prolitic  race,  cond)ined  witli  the  iia- 
perfect  development  of  its  moral  faculties,  gave  to  human  lifo, 
in  the  eye  of  man  himself,  an  inferior  value.  Il'imanity  did 
not  respect  itself  in  the  individual,  in  the  famil  or  in  the  na- 
tion. Our  systems  of  ethics  will  not  explain  the  phenomenon: 
its  cause  is  not  to  bo  souglit  in  the  suppression  of  moral  feel- 
ing, but  rather  in  the  condition  of  a  branch  of  the  human  fam- 
ily not  yet  fidly  possessec  of  its  moral  and  rational  lifo.  The 
quick  maturity,  the  facility  of  obtaining  sustenance,  aii  unde- 
veloped intelligence,  and  the  fniltfulness  of  the  negro,  explain 
why,  from  century  to  century,  tho  slave-ships  could  find  a 
freight,  and  yet  the  population  of  the  interior  be  kept  full. 

Africans  of  more  than  thirty  yeara  of  age  were  rejected  hy 
the  traders  as  too  old,  and  few  were  received  under  fourteen. 
Of  the  whole  number,  not  more  than  one  third  part  was  com- 
posed of  women ;  and  a  woman  past  two-and-twenty  was  hardly 
deemed  worth  tranEi)ortation.  The  English  8lave-8hii)s  were 
laden  with  the  youth  of  Africa. 

Slavery  and  even  a  change  of  masters  wove  familiar  to  the 
African ;  but  to  be  conducted  to  the  yhores  of  the  Western 
Ocean,  to  be  doomed  to  pass  its  boundless  deep  and  enter  on 
new  toils  in  an  untried  clime  and  amid  an  unknown  race,  Wiis 
appalling  to  the  black  man.  The  horrors  of  the  passage  cor- 
responded with  the  infamy  of  ^he  trade.  Small  vessels,  of 
little  more  than  two  hundred  tons'  burden,  were  prepared  for 
the  traffic ;  for  these  could  most  easily  penetrate  tho  bays  and 
rivers  of  the  coast,  and,  quickly  obtaining  a  lading,  could  soon- 
est hm-ry  away  from  the  deadly  air  of  tlie  African  coast.  In 
such  a  bark  five  hundred  negroes  and  more  have  been  stowed, 
exciting  wonder  that  men  could  have  lived,  within  the  tropics, 
cribbed  in  so  few  inches  of  room.  The  inequality  of  force 
between  the  crew  and  the  cargo  led  to  the  use  of  manacles ; 


THE   U^  'TT«u  SLAVE  T^ADE. 


273 


tlic  Lands  of  tlio  sf  inger  men  were  uiado  fa^t  together,  imd 
tl.o  right  leg  of  .;no  wiis  nlmined  to  the  left  of  another.     Tho 
avarice  of  tho  trader  vviis  a  partial  guarantee  of  tlio  necurity  of 
lifo,  as  far  a.,  it  depended  on  him  ;  hut  death  hovered  ahvavb 
over  tlie  slavo-Hhip.    The  negroes,  as  they  ca    e  from  the  higher 
lovul  to  tho  sea-Hide,  poorly  fel  on  the  sad  i)il-rimage,  sleeping 
at  n!s,'ht  on  tho  damp  earth  without  covering,  and  often  re  cli- 
iii<<  the  coast  at  unvavorahle  seasons,  imbihod  the  seeds  of  dis- 
.;a.<L',  whicii  confinement  on  board  sliip  (piickcned  into  feverish 
activity.    There  have  boon  examples  where  one  half  of  them— 
it  hns  been  said,  even,  where  two  thirds  of  them— perished  on 
the  passage.     The  total  loss  of  life  on  the  voyage  is  computed 
to  have  been,  on  the  avcrago,  fifteen,  certainly  full  twelve  and 
a  half,  in  the  hundred;  the  harbors  of  tho  West  Indies  proved 
fatal  to  four  and  a  half  mo:-o  out  of  every  hundred.     N(j  scene 
of  wretchedness  could  surpass  a  crowded  slave-ship  during  a 
Btonn  at  sea, '  nJes-.  it  were  that  same  ship  dismasted,  or  sutfer- 
ing  from  a  pr  tracted  voyage  and  want  of  food,  its  miserable 
iuinatos  tossed  helplessly  to  and  fro  under  tho  rays  of  a  vertical 
sun.  vainly  ga«])ing  for  a  drop  of  water. 

Of  a  direct  voyage  from  Guinea  to  the  coast  of  the  United 
States  no  jounial  is  known  to  exist,  though  slave-ships  from 
Africa  entered  Newport  and  nearly  every  considerable  harbor 
soutli  of  it. 

In  tho  northern  provinces  of  English  America,  the  negroes 
were  lost  in  the  larger  number  of  Avhites ;   and  only  in  the 
lowlands  of  South  Carolina  and  Virginia  did  tiiey  constitute  a 
great  majority  of  the  inhabitants.     When  they  met  on  our 
soil  thoy  were  as  strange  to  one  another  as  to'  their  masters. 
Taken  fn^n  places  in  Africa  a  thousand  miles  asunder,  the  ne- 
gro emigrants  to  America  brougl:t  with  them  no  common  lan- 
guage or  worship.    They  were  compeUed  to  adopt  a  new  dialect 
for  mtercourse  wit  a  each  other ;  and  broken  English  became 
their  tongue  not  less  fjnong  themselves  than  with  their  mas- 
ters.   Hence  the^-e  was  no  unity  among  them,  and  no  immedi- 
ate pohtical  danger  from  their  joint  action.     Once  an  ekcite- 
ment  against  them  raged  in  New  York,  through  fear  of  a 
pretended  plot ;  but  the  frenz,  grew  out  of  ..  delusion.     Some- 
tmies  the  extreme  harshness  of  taskmasters  may  have  provoked 

VOL,  II.— 18 


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27i    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748,    part  hi.  ;  oir.  xvi. 

resistance ;  or  sometimes  an  African,  accustomed  from  birth  to 
freedom,  and  rediiced  to  slavery  by  tlie  chances  of  war,  carried 
with  him  across  the  Atlantic  the  indomitable  spirit  of  a  war- 
rior; but  the  instances  of  insurrection  were  insulated,  and 
without  result.  Destitute  of  common  traditions,  customs,  and 
laws,  the  black  population  existed  in  fragments,  having  no 
bonds  of  union  but  color  and  misfortune.  Thus,  the  negro 
slave  in  America  wa^  dependent  on  his  owner  for  civihzation  • 
he  could  be  initiated  into  skill  in  the  arts  only  through  him  • 
through  him  only  could  he  gain  a  coimtry ;  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, in  the  next  generation,  though  dissatisfied  witli  his 
condition,  he  had  yet  learned  to  love  the  land  of  his  master  as 
liis  own. 

It  is  not  easy  to  conjecture  how  many  negroes  were  im- 
ported into  the  English  continental  colonies.  The  usual  esti- 
mates far  exceed  the  truth.  Climate  came  in  aid  of  opinion 
to  oppose  their  introduction.  Owing  to  the  inequality  of  the 
sexes,  their  natural  increase  was  not  rapid  in  the  first  gen- 
eration. Previous  to  the  year  1740,  there  may  have  been 
brought  into  our  country  nearly  one  hundred  and  thirty  thou- 
sand; before  1776,  a  few  more  than  three  hundred  thousand. 
From  the  best  accounts  that  have  been  preserved,  there  may 
have  been  in  the  IJnited  States,  in  1714,  nearly  fifty-nine 
thousand  negroes;  in  1727,  seventy-eight  thousand;  in  1754, 
nearly  two  hundred  and  ninety-three  thousand;  but  these 
numbers  are  not  entitled  to  be  regarded  as  absolutely  accurate. 

In  the  northern  and  the  middle  states,  the  negro  was 
employed  for  menial  oftices  and  in  the  culture  of  wheat  and 
maize.  In  the  South,  almost  all  the  tobacco  exported  from 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  all  the  indigo  and  rice  of  Carolina, 
were  the  fruit  of  his  toils.  Instead  of  remaining  in  a  wild 
and  unproductive  servitude,  his  labor  contributed  to  the  wealth 
of  nations ;  his  destiny,  from  its  influence  on  commerce,  ex- 
cited interest  throughout  the  civilized  world. 

With  U(>w  powers  of  ])roduction,  the  negro  learned  new 
wants,  which  were  at  least  partially  supplied.  At  the  IS^orth, 
he  dwelt  under  the  roof  of  his  master ;  his  physical  well-being 
was  provided  for,  and  opinion  jirotected  him  against  cruelty. 
At  the  South,  his  home  was  a  rade  cabin  of  his  own,  eon- 


THE  BRITISH  SLAVE-TRADE. 


275 


stnicted  of  logs  or  slabs.     The  early  writers  tell  us  little  of 
Iiis  history,  except  the  crops  which  he  raised. 

His  physical  constitution  decided  his  home  in  the  New 
World;  he  loved  the  sun;  even  the  climate  of  Virginia  ^r as 
too  chill  for  him.  His  labor,  therefore,  increased  in  value  as 
he  proceeded  south ;  and  hence  the  relation  of  master  and 
slave  came  to  be  essentially  a  southern  institution. 

The  testimony  of  concurrent  tradition  represents  the  ne- 
groes, at  their  arrival,  to  have  been  gross  and  stupid,  having 
memory  and  physiciu  strength,  but  undisciplined  in  the  exer- 
cise of  reason.  At  the  end  of  a  generation,  all  observers  af- 
firmed the  marked  progress  of  the  black  American.  In  the 
midst  of  the  horrors  of  slavery  and  the  slave-trade,  the  masters 
bad,  in  part  at  least,  civilized  the  negro. 

The  thought  of  emanciixation  soon  presented  itself.  In 
1701,  Boston  instnicted  its  representatives  "  to  encourage  the 
bringing  of  white  servants,  and  to  put  a  period  to  negroes 
being  slaves."  In  1712,  to  a  petition  for  the  "  enlargement" 
of  negro  slaves  by  law,  the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  an- 
swered that  "it  was  neither  just  nor  convenient  to  set  them  at 
li])crty;"  and  yet  George  Keith,  the  early  aboHtionist,  was 
followed  by  the  eccentric  Benjamin  Lay;  by  Ralph  Sandiford, 
wlio  held  slavery  to  be  inconsistent  alike  with  the  riglits  of 
man  and  the  priiicii)les  of  Christianity;  and,  at  a  later  day,  by 
the  amiable  enthusiast,  Anthony  Benezet. 

But  did  not  Christianity  enfranchise  its  converts?  The 
Christian  world  of  that  day  almost  universally  revered  in  Christ 
the  impersonation  of  the  divine  wisdom.  Could  an  intelligent 
being,  wlio,  through  the  Mediator,  had  participated  in^he 
Spirit  of  God,  and  by  his  own  inward  experience  had  become 
conscious  of  a  Supreme  Being,  and  of  relations  between  that 
Being  and  humanity,  be  rightfully  held  in  bondage?  From 
Xew  England  to  Carolina,  the  "notion"  prevailed  that  "being 
hiiptized  is  inconsistent  with  a  state  of  slavery;"  and  this 
ciu-ly  apprehension  proved  an  obstacle  to  the  "convei-sion  of 
these  poor  peo]>le."  The  sentiment  was  so  deep  and  so  gen- 
eral that  South  Carolina  in  1712,  IMaryland  in  1715,  Virginia 
repeatedly  from  1007  to  1748,  set  forth  by  special  enactments 
tliat  baptism  did  not  confer  freedom.     The  lawyers  declared 


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27G    BRITISH  AMERICA  FilOM  1688  TO  1748.    part  ni. ;  en.  xvi. 

the  fear  groundless ;  and  "  the  opinion  of  his  majesty's  attorney 
and  solicitor  general,  Yorke  and  Talbot,  signed  with  their  own 
hands,  was  accordingly  printed  in  Rhode  Island,  and  dispersed 
through  the  plantations."  "  I  heartily  wish,"  adds  Berkeley, 
"  it  may  produce  the  intended  effect ; "  and  at  the  same  time  he 
rebuked  "  the  irrational  contempt  of  the  blades,  as  creatures  of 
another  species,  having  no  right  to  be  instructed."  In  like  man- 
ner, Gibson,  the  bishop  of  London,  asserted  that  "  Christianity 
and  the  embracing  of  the  gospel  did  not  make  the  least  altera- 
tion in  civil  property ; "  while  he  besought  the  masters  to  regard 
the  negroes  "  not  barely  as  slaves,  but  as  men-slaves  and  women- 
slaves,  having  the  same  frame  and  faculties  with  themselves." 

There  is  not,  in  all  the  colonial  legislation  of  America,  one 
law  which  recognises  the  rightfulness  of  slavery  in  the  abstract. 
Every  province  favored  freedom  as  such.  The  real  question 
at  issue  was,  from  the  first,  not  one  of  slavery  and  freedom 
generally,  but  of  the  relations  to  each  other  of  the  Ethiopian 
and  American  races.  The  Englishman  in  America  tolerated 
and  enforced  not  the  slavery  of  man,  but  the  slavery  of  the 
man  who  was  "  guilty  of  a  skin  not  colored  IP'.e  his  own."  In 
the  skin  lay  the  unexpiated,  and,  as  it  was  held,  inexpiable, 
guilt.  To  the  negro,  whom  the  benevolence  of  his  master  en- 
franchised, the  path  to  social  equality  was  not  open. 

The  question  of  tolerating  the  slave-trade  and  the  question 
of  abolishing  slaveiy  rested  on  different  grounds.  The  one 
related  to  a  refusal  of  a  trust ;  the  other,  to  the  manner  of  its 
exercise.  The  English  continental  colonies,  in  the  aggregate, 
were  always  opposed  to  the  African  slave-trade.  Maryland, 
Virginia,  even  Carolina,  alanned  at  the  excessive  production 
and  the  consequent  low  price  of  their  staples,  at  the  heavy 
debts  incurred  by  the  purchase  of  slaves  on  credit,  and  at  the 
dangerous  increase  of  the  colored  jwpulation,  each  showed  an 
anxious  preference  for  the  introducdon  of  white  men ;  and 
laws  designed  to  restrict  importations  of  slaves  are  scattered 
copiously  along  the  records  of  colonial  legislation.  On  the 
sixth  of  April  1776,  the  first  continental  congress  which  took 
to  itself  powers  of  legislation  gave  a  legal  exj^ression  to  the 
well-formed  opinion  of  the  country  by  resolving  "that  no 
slaves  be  imported  hito  any  of  the  thirteen  united  colonies." 


THE  BRITISH  SLAVE-TRADE. 


277 


Before  America  legislated  for  herself,  the  interdict  of  the 
slave-trade  was  impossible.     England  was  inexorable  in  main- 
taining the  system,  which  gained  new  and  stronger  supporters 
by  its  excess.     The  English  slave-trade  began  to  attain  its  great 
activity  after  the  assiento  treaty.      From  1680  to  1700,  the 
English  took  from  Africa  about  three  himdred  thousand  ne- 
groes, or  about  fifteen  thousand  a  year.  The  number  during  the 
continuance  of  tli'    assiento  may  have  averaged  annually  not 
far  from  thirty  thousand.     Raynal  considers  the  number  of  ne- 
groes exported  by  all  European  nations  from  Africa  before 
1770  to  have  been  nine  millions ;  and  historians  of  the  slave- 
trade  have  deemed  hie  statement  too  small.    A  careful  analysis 
of  the  colored  population  in  America  at  different  periods,  and 
the  inferences  to  be  deduced  from  the  few  authentic  records 
of  the  numbers  imported,  corrected  by  a  comparison  with  the 
commercial  products  of  slave  labor  as  appearing  in  the  annals 
of  English  commerce,  seem  to  prove,  beyond  a  doubt,  that 
even  the  estimate  of  Eaynal  is  larger  than  the  reahty.     We 
shall  not  err  very  much  if,  for  the  century  previous  to  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  slave-trade  by  the  American  congress,  in  1776, 
we  assume  the  number  imported  by  the  English  into  the  Span- 
ish, French,  and  Enghsh  West  Indies,  and  the  English  con- 
tinental colonies,  to  have  been,  collectively,  nearly  three  mill- 
ions :  to  which  are  to  be  added  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mill- 
ion purchased  in  Africa,  and  thrown  into  the  Atlantic  on  the 
passage.     The  gross  returns  to  English   merchants,  for  the 
traffic  in  that  number  of  slaves,  may  have  been  not  far  from 
four  hundred  millions  of  dollars.     Yet,  as  at  least  one  half  of 
tlie  negroes  exported  from  Africa  to  America  were  canned  in 
English  ships,  it  should  be  observed  that  this  estimate  is  by  far 
the  lowest  ever  made  by  any  inquirer  into  the  statistics  of 
human  wickedness.     After  every  deduction,  the  trade  retains 
its  gigantic  character  of  crime. 

In  an  age  when  the  interests  of  commerce  guided  legisla- 
tion, this  branch  of  commerce  possessed  paramount  attractions. 
Xot  a  statesman  exposed  its  enormities ;  and,  if  Eichard  Bax- 
ter reminded  the  slave-holder  that  the  slave  "was  of  as  good  a 
kind  as  himself,  born  to  as  much  liberty,  by  nature  his  equal,  a 
servant  and  a  brother,  by  right  bora  his  own ; "  if  Addison,  as 


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if 


i.  ! 


278     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    pakt  hi.;  cii.  xvi. 


I 


a  man  of  lettei-s,  held  it  without  excuse,  that  "  this  part  of  our 
species  was  not  put  upon  the  common  foot  of  Immanity ; "  if 
Southern  di'ew  tears  by  the  tragic  tale  of  "Oronooko;"  if 
Steele  awakened  a  throb  of  indignation  by  the  story  of  "  Inkle 
and  Yarico;"  if  Savage  and  Shenstone  pointed  their  feeble 
couplets  with  the  wrongs  of  "  Afric's  sable  children ; "  if  the 
Irish  metaphysician  Ilutcheson,  who  proposed  to  rulers  for 
their  object  "  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number," 
justly  stigmatized  the  traffic — yet  in  England  no  general  in- 
dignation rebuked  the  enormity.  The  philosophy  of  that  day 
furnished  to  the  African  no  protection  against  oppression ;  and 
the  interpretation  of  English  common  law  was  equally  regard- 
less of  human  freedom.  The  colonial  negi'o,  who  sailed  to  the 
metropolis,  found  no  benefit  from  touching  the  soil  of  Eng- 
land, but  retm-ned  a  slave.  Such  was  the  approved  law  of 
England  in  the  first  half  of  the  last  century;  such  was  the 
opinion  of  Yorke  and  Talbot,  the  law  officers  of  the  crown,  as 
expressed  in  1729,  and,  after  a  lapse  of  twenty  years,  repeated 
and  confirmed  by  Yorke  as  chancellor  of  England. 

The  influence  of  the  manufacturers  was  still  worse.  They 
clamored  for  the  protection  of  a  trade  which  opened  to  them 
an  African  market.  Thus  the  party  of  the  slave-trade  dictated 
laws  to  Britain.  A  resolve  of  the  commons,  in  the  days  of 
AYilham  and  Mary,  proposed  to  lay  open  the  trade  in  negroes 
"  for  the  better  supply  of  the  plantations ; "  and,  in  1G95,  the 
statute-book  of  England  soon  declared  the  oj^inion  of  its  king 
and  its  pai'liament,  that  "  the  trade  is  highly  beneficial  and  ad- 
vantageous to  the  kingdom  and  the  colonies."  In  1708,  a  com- 
mittee of  the  house  of  commons  report  that  "  the  trade  is  im- 
portant, and  ought  to  be  free;"  in  1711,  a  committee  once 
more  report  tliat  "  the  plantations  ought  to  be  8upj)lied  with 
negroes  at  reasonable  rates,"  and  urge  an  increase  of  importa- 
tions. In  Jime  1712,  Queen  Anne,  in  her  speech  to  parlia- 
ment, boasts  of  her  success  in  securing  to  Englishmen  a  new 
market  for  slaves  in  Spanish  America.  In  1729,  George  II. 
recommended  a  provision,  at  the  national  expense,  for  the 
African  forts;  and  the  recommendation  was  followed.  At 
last,  in  171:9,  to  give  the  highest  activity  to  the  traffic,  every 
obstruction  to  i^rivate  cnterTirise  was  removed*  and  the  ports  of 


1717-1728. 


THE  BRITISH  SLAVE-TRADE. 


279 


Africa  were  laicl  open  to  English  competition ;  for  "  the  slave- 
trade,"  such  are  the  words  of  the  statute,  "  is  very  advantageous 
to  Great  Britain."  "The  British  senate,"  wrote  one  of  its 
raeml:>ers,  in  February  1750,  "  have  this  fortnight  been  ponder- 
ing methods  to  make  more  effectual  that  horrid  traffic  of  sell- 
ing negroes.  It  has  appeared  to  us  that  six-and-forty  thou- 
sand of  these  wretches  are  sold  eveiy  year  to  our  plantations 
alone." 

But,  while  the  partial  monopoly  of  the  African  company 
was  broken  down,  and  the  commerce  in  men  Avas  opened  to  the 
competition  of  all  Englishmen,  the  monopoly  of  British  sub- 
jects was  rigidly  enforced  against  foreigners.  That  English- 
men alone  might  monopolize  all  wealth  to  be  derived  from  the 
trade.  Holt  and  PoUexfen,  and  eight  other  judges,  in  pursuance 
of  an  order  in  council,  had  given  their  opinion  "  that  negroes 
are  merchandise,"  and  that,  therefore,  the  act  of  navigation  was 
to  be  extended  to  English  slave-ships  to  the  exclusion  of  aliens. 

The  same  policy  was  manifested  in  the  relations  between 
the  English  crown  and  the  colonies.  Land  from  the  public 
domain  was  given  to  emigrants,  in  one  West  India  colony  at 
least,  on  condition  that  tho  resident  own(!r  would  "  keep  four 
negroes  for  every  hundred  acres."  The  eighteenth  century 
was  ushered  in  by  the  royal  instruction  of  Queen  Anne,  in 
1702,  to  the  governor  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  "  to  give 
due  encoiu-agement  to  merchants,  and  in  particular  to  the  royal 
African  company  of  England."  That  the  instruction  was  gen- 
eral is  evident  from  the  apology  of  Spotswood  for  the  small 
number  of  slaves  brought  into  Virginia.  In  that  common- 
wealth, the  planters  beheld  with  dismay  the  increase  of  negroes. 
A  tax  repressed  their  importation ;  and,  in  May  1726,  Hugh 
Drysdale,  the  deputy  governor,  announced  to  the  house  that 
"  the  interfering  interest  of  the  African  company  had  obtained 
the  repeal  of  that  law."  Long  afterward,  a  statesman  of  Vir- 
ginia, in  full  view  of  the  course  of  colonial  legislation  and  Eng- 
lish counteracting  authority,  unbiassed  by  hostility  to  Englimd, 
bore  true  testimony  that  "  the  British  government  constantly 
checked  the  attempts  of  Virginia  to  put  a  stop  to  this  infernal 
traffic."  On  whatever  ground  Virghiia  opposed  the  trade,  the 
censure  was  just.     South  Curuliua,  in  1700,  from  pradential 


!     ,-    ^„ 


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ill 


280     BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi 


on.  XVI. 


motives,  attempted  restrictions,  and  gained  only  a  rebuke  from 
the  English  ministry.  Great  Britain,  steadily  rejecting  every 
colonial  Limitation  of  the  slave-trade,  instnicted  the  governors 
on  i^ain  of  removal,  not  to  give  even  a  temporary  assent  to  such 
laws ;  and,  but  a  year  before  the  prohibition  of  the  slave-trade 
by  the  American  congress,  in  1770,  the  earl  of  Dartmouth  ad- 
dressed to  a  colonial  agent  these  memorable  words :  "  We  can- 
not allow  the  colonies  to  clieck,  or  discourage  in  any  degree  a 
traffic  so  beneficial  to  the  nation." 

The  assiento  treaty,  originally  extorted  by  force  of  arms 
remained  a  source  of  jealousy  between  Spain  and  England! 
On  the  American  frontier  Spain  claimed  to  extend  her  juris- 
diction north  of  the  Savannah  river,  as  far  at  least  as  St.  Ple- 
lena  sound.  The  foundation  of  St.  Augustine  had  preceded 
that  of  Charleston  by  a  century ;  national  pride  still  clung  to 
the  traditions  of  the  wide  extent  of  Florida ;  the  settlement  of 
the  Scottish  emigrants  at  Port  Eoyal  had  been  dispersed  ;  and 
it  was  feebleness  alone  which  toleruted  the  advancement  of  the 
plantations  of  South  Carolina  toward  the  Savannah.  Mean- 
time, England  resolved  to  pass  that  stream. 

The  resolution      is  not  hastily  adopted.     In  1717,  a  propo- 
sal was  brought  forward  to  plant  a  new  colony  south  of  Caro- 
lina, in  the  region  that  was  heralded  as  the  most  delightful 
country  of  the  universe.     The  land  was  to  be  tilled  by  British 
and  Irish  laborers  exclusively,  without  "  the  dangerous  help  of 
blackamoors."     Three  years  afterward,  in  the  excited  season  of 
English  stock- jobbing  and  English  anticipations,  the  suggestion 
was  revived.     When  Carolina,  in  1728,  became  by  purchase  a 
royal  province,  Johnson,  its  governor,  was  directed  to  mark 
out  to^vnships  as  far  south  as  the  Alatamaha  ;  and,  in  1731,  a 
site  was  chosen  for  a  colony  of  Swiss  in  the  ancient  land  of  the 
Yamassees,  but  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Savannah.     The  coun- 
try between  the  two  rivers  was  still  a  wilderness,  when  the 
spirit  of  benevolence,  heedless  of  the  objection  that  "  the  colo- 
nies would  grow  too  great "  for  England  "  and  throw  off  their 
dependency,"  resolved  to  plant  the  sunny  clime  with  those  who 
in  England  had  neither  land  nor  shelter,  and  those  on  the  con- 
tinent^ to  whom,  as  Protestants,  bigotry  denied  freedom  of 
worship  and  a  home. 


1728-1733. 


COLONIZATION  OF  GEORGIA, 


281 


In  the  days  when  protection  of  property  was  avowed  to 
be  the  end  of  government,  the  gallows  was  set  up  as  the  pen- 
alty for  a  petty  theft.  Each  year,  in  Great  Britain,  at  least 
four  thousand  unhappy  men  were  immured  in  prison  for  the 
misfortune  of  poverty ;  a  small  debt  exi^osed  to  a  perpetuity 
of  imprisonment ;  one  indiscreet  contract  doomed  the  misera- 
ble dupe  to  lifelong  confinement.  The  subject  won  the  atten- 
tion of  James  Oglethorpe,  a  member  of  the  British  parlia- 
ment ;  in  middle  hfe  ;  educated  at  Oxford  ;  receiving  his  fii-st 
commission  in  the  English  army  during  the  ascendency  of  Bo- 
Ung-broke ;  a  volunteer  in  the  family  of  Prince  Eugene  ;  pres 
ent  at  the  siege  of  Belgrade.  To  him,  in  the  annals  of  legis- 
lative philanthropy,  the  honor  is  due  of  having  first  resolved 
to  lighten  the  lot  of  debtors.  Touched  with  the  sorrows  which 
the  walls  of  a  prison  could  not  liide  from  him,  he  searched 
into  the  gloomy  horrors  of  jails, 

Where  sickness  pines,  where  thirst  and  hunger  burn. 
And  poor  misfortune  feels  the  lash  of  vice. 
In  172S,  he  invoked  the  interference  of  the  English  parlia- 
ment ;  and,  }is  a  commissioner  for  inquiring  into  the  state  of 
the  jails  in  the  kingdom,  persevered,  till,  "  from  extreme  mis- 
ery, he  restored  to  light  and  freedom  multitudes  who,  by  lono- 
confinement  for  debt,  were  strangers  and  helj^less  in  the  cou^ 
try  of  their  birth."  He  did  more.  For  them,  and  for  perse- 
cuted Protestants,  he  planned  a  new  destiny  in  America. 

To  furtlier  this  end,  a  charter  from  George  II.,  dated  the 
ninth  day  of  June  1732,  erected  the  country  between  the  Sa- 
vannah and  the  Alatamaha,  and  from  the  head-sprino-s  of  those 
rivers  due  west  to  the  Pacific,  into  the  province  of  Georgia, 
and  placed  it  for  twenty-one  years  imder  the  guardianship  of 
a  corporation,  "  in  trust  for  the  poor."  The  conunon  seal  of 
the  corporation,  having  on  one  side  a  group  of  silk-worms  at 
tbeir  toils,  with  the  motto,  "  N'on  sibi,  sed  aliis  "— "  Not  for 
themselves,  but  for  others  "—expressed  the  purpose  of  the  na- 
trons, who  by  their  o^vn  request  were  restrained  from  receiving 
any  grant  of  lands,  or  any  emolument  whatever.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  seal,  the  device  represented  two  figures  reposing 
on  urns,  emblematic  of  the  boundary  rivers,  having  between 
them  the  genius  of  "  Georgia  Augusta,"  with  a  cap  of  hberty 


I  I 


282    BRITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748. 


PART  m. ;  en.  XVI. 


on  Ler  liead,  "  spear  in  one  hand,  the  horn  of  plenty  in  the 
other.     But  tho  cap  of  liberty  was,  for  a  time  at  least,  a  false 
emhleui ;  for  all  executive  and  legislative  power,  and  the  in- 
stitution of  courts,  were  for  twenty-one  j'ears  given  exclusively 
to  the  trustees,  or  their  common  council,  who  were  appointed 
during  good  behavior.     The  trustees  held  these  grants  to  con- 
tain but  "  proper  powers  for  establishing  and  governing  the 
colony."    The  land,  open  to  Jews,  was  closed  against  "  papists." 
At  the  head  of  the  council  stood  Shaftesbury,  fourth  earl  of 
that  name ;  but  its  most  celebrated  member  was  Oglethorpe. 
So  illustrious  were  the  auspices  of  the  design,  that  liopo  painted 
visions  of  an  Eden  that  was  to  spring  up  to  reward  such  disin- 
terested benevolence.     The  kindly  sun  of  the  new  colony  was 
to  look  down  on  purple  vintages,  and  the  silk-worm  yield  its 
thread  to  British  looms.     Individual  zeal  was  kindled  in  its 
favor ;  the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gosixil  in  foreign  parts 
sought  to  promote  it ;  and  parliament  showed  its  good- will  by 
contributing  ten  thousand  pounds. 

But,  while  others  gave  to  the  design  their  leisure,  their 
prayers,  or  their  wealth,  Oglethorpe  devoted  himself  to  its 
fultilment.  In  November  1732,  he  embarked  with  about  one 
hundred  and  twenty  emigrants  for  America,  and  in  fifty-seven 
days  arrived  off  the  bar  of  Charleston.  Accepting  a  short  wel- 
come, he  sailed  directly  for  Port  Royal.  While  the  colony 
was  landing  at  Beaufort,  its  patron  ascended  the  boundary 
river  of  Georgia,  and,  before  the  end  of  January  1733,  chose 
for  the  site  of  his  chief  town  the  high  blnff  on  which  Savan- 
nah now  stands.  At  the  distance  of  a  haK  mile  dwelt  tlie 
Yamacraws,  a  branch  of  the  Muskohgees,  who,  witli  Tomo- 
chichi,  their  chieftain,  sought  security  by  an  alliance  with  the 
English.  "  Here  is  a  little  present,"  said  the  red  man,  as  he 
offered  a  buffalo  skin,  painted  on  the  inside  with  the  head  and 
feathers  of  an  eagle.  "  The  feathers  of  the  eagle  are  soft,  and 
signify  love ;  the  buffalo  skin  is  warm,  and  is  the  emblem  of 
protection.  Therefore  love  and  protect  our  little  fi^xuilies." 
On  the  twelfth  of  February,  new  style,  the  colonists  arrived 
at  the  place  intended  for  the  town,  and  before  evening  en- 
camped on  shore  near  the  edge  of  the  rivei*.  Four  beautiful 
pines  protected  the  tent  of  Oglethorpe,  who  f<.>r  near  a  twelve- 


1788. 


COLONIZATION  OF  GEORGIA, 


288 


month  sought  no  other  shelter.  The  sh-eets  of  Savannah 
were  laid  out  with  the  greatest  regularity ;  in  each  quarter,  a 
pubUe  square  was  reserved;  the  houses  were  planned  and 
constracted  on  one  model,  each  a  frame  of  sawed  timber, 
twenty-four  feet  by  sixteen,  floored  n-ith  rough  deals,  the  sides 
with  feather-edged  boards  unplaned,  and  the  roof  shingled. 
Such  a  house  Oglethorpe  afterward  hired  as  his  residence, 
when  in  Savannah.  Ero  long  a  walk,  cut  through  the  native 
woods,  led  to  the  large  garden  on  the  river-side,  destined  as  a 
niu-sery  of  European  fruit  and  of  the  products  of  America. 
The  humane  reformer  of  prison  discipline  was  the  father  of 
the  commonwealth  of  Georgia,  "  the  place  of  refuge  for  the 
distressed  people  of  Britain  and  the  ijersecuted  Protestants  of 
Europe." 

In  May,  the  chief  men  of  the  eight  toAvms  of  the  lower 
Muskohgees,  accepting  his  invitation,  came  down  to  make  an 
alliance.     Long  King,  the  tall  and  aged  civil  chief  of  the 
Oconas,  spoke  for  them  all :    "  The  Great  Spirit,  who  dwells 
every^vhere  around,  and  gives  breath  to  all  men,  sends  the 
English  to  instruct  us."     Claiming  the  country  south  of  the 
Savannah,  he  bade  the  strangers  welcome  to  the  lands  which 
his  nation  did  not  use ;  and,  in  token  of  sincerity,  he  laid  eio-ht 
bundles  of  buckskins  at  Oglethorpe's  feet.     "  Tomo-chichi,"  he 
added,  "  though  banished  from  his  nation,  has  yet  been  a  great 
wan-ior;   and,  for  his  ^visdom  and  courage,  the  exiles  chose 
him  their  king."     Tomo-chichi  entered  timorously,  and,  bow- 
ing very  low,  gave  thanks  that  he  was  still  permitted  "  to  look 
for  good  laud  among  the  tombs  of  his  ancestoi-s."     The  chief 
of  Coweta  stood  uj)  and  said:   "We  are  come  twenty-five 
days'  journey  to  see  you.     I  was  never  willing  to  go  down  to 
Charleston,  lest  I  should  die  on  the  way ;  but  when  I  heard 
you  were  come,  and  that  you  are  good  men,  I  came  down, 
that  I  might  hear  good  things."     He  then  gave  leave  to  the 
exiles  to  summon  the  kindred  that  loved  them  out  of  each  of 
the  Creek  to^vns,  that  they  might  dwell  together.     "  Recall," 
he  added,  "  the  Yamassees,  that  they  may  see  the  graves  of 
their  ancestors  before  they  die,  and  may  be  buried  in  peace 
among  them."     On  the  first  of  June,  a  treaty  of  peace  was 
signed,  by  which  the  English  claimed  sovereignty  over  the 


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284    BRITISH  AMEKIOA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    partiii.;  en.  xvi. 

land  of  the  Creeks  lus  far  Honth  as  the  St.  John's ;  and  the 
chioftuinH  departed  hiden  with  presents. 

A  Cherokee  appeared  among  tlie  English.  "Fear  noth- 
ing," said  Oglethoqie,  "but  speak  freely;"  and  the  moun- 
taineer answered:  "I  iiluays  speak  -freely.  Why  should  I 
ieari  I  am  now  among  friends;  I  never  feared  even  amon"- 
my  enemies."  And  friendly  relations  Avere  cherished  with  the 
Cherokees.  In  July  of  the  following  year,  Red  Shoes,  a  Choc- 
ta  chief,  proposed  connnerce.  "  We  came  a  great  way,"  said 
he,  "and  wo  ai-o  a  great  nation.  The  French  are  liuildino- 
forts  about  us,  against  onr  hking.  We  have  long  traded  with 
them,  but  they  are  poor  in  goods  ;  we  desire  that  a  trade  may 
be  opened  between  us  and  you."  The  good  faith  of  Qo-le- 
thorpe  in  the  olfers  of  peace,  his  noble  mien  and  sweetness  of 
temper,  conciliated  the  confidence  of  the  red  men ;  in  his  turn, 
he  was  pleased  with  their  simplicity,  and  sought  for  means  to 
clear  the  glimmering  ray  of  their  minds,  to  guide  their  l)e- 
wildcred  reason,  and  teach  them  to  know  the  God  whom  they 
ignorantly  adored. 

The  province  of  South  Carolina  displayed  "a  universal  zeal 
for  assisting  its  new  ally  and  buhvark"  on  the  south. 

When  the  Roman  Catholic  archbishop,  who  was  the  ruler 
of  Salzburg,  with  merciless  bigotry  drove  out  of  his  dominions 
the  Lutherans  whom  horrid  tortures  and  relentless  persecution 
could  not  force  to  renounce  their  Protestant  faith,  Frederic 
William  I.  of  Pnissia  planted  a  part  of  them  on  freeholds  in 
his  kingdom  ;  othei-s,  on  the  invitation  of  the  Society  in  Eng- 
land for  Propagating  the  Gospel,  prepared  to  emigrate  to  the 
Savannah.  A  free  passage ;  provisions  in  Georgia  for  a  whole 
season ;  land  for  themselves  and  their  children,  free  for  ten 
years,  then  to  be  held  for  a  small  quit-rent ;  the  privileges 
of  native  Englishmen;  freedom  of  worship — these  were  tlie 
promises  made,  accepted,  and  honorably  fulfilled.  On  the  last 
day  of  October  1733,  "the  evangeUcal  community,"  well 
supplied  with  Bibles  and  hymn-books,  catechisms  and  books 
of  devotion,  conveying  in  one  wagon  their  few  cliattels,  in  two 
other  covered  ones  their  feebler  companions,  and  especially 
their  little  ones — after  a  discourse  and  prayer  and  benedictions, 
cheerfully,  and  in  the  name  of  God,  began  their  pilgrimage. 


1733-1734. 


COLONIZATION  OF  GEORGIA, 


S85 


Hiritory  need  not  stop  to  toll  what  charities  cheered  them  on 
tlieir  journey,  what  towns  were  closed  against  them  by  Roman 
Catholic  magistrates,  or  how  they  entered   Frankfort  on  the 
Main,  two  by  two  in  solemn  procession,  singing  spiritual  songs. 
As  they  floated  down  ihe  :^rain,  and  between  the  castled  crags, 
the  vineyards,  and  the  white-walled  towns  that  adorn  the  banks 
of  the  Rhine,  their  conversation,  amid  hymns  and  prayers, 
was  of  justiiication  and  of  sanctilication,  and  of  standing  fast  in 
the  Lord.     At  Rotterdam,  they  were  joined  by  two  preachers, 
Lolzius  and  Gronau,  both  disciplined  in  charity  at  the  Orphan 
House  in  Ilalle.     A  passage  of  six  days  carried  them  from 
Rotterdam  to  Dover,  where  several  of  the  tmstees  visited  them 
and  provided  considerately  for  their  wants.     In  January  1734, 
they  set  sail  for  their  new  homes.     The  majesty  of  the  ocean 
quickened  their  sense  of  God's  omnipotence  and  wisdom ;  and, 
as  they  lost  sight  of  laud,  they  broke  out  into  a  hymn  to  his 
glory.     The  setting  sun,  after  a  calm,  so  kindled  the  sea  and 
the  sky  that  words  could  not  express  their  rapture,  and  they 
cried  out :  "  How  lovely  the  creation !     IIow  intinitely  lovely 
tlie  Creator!"    When  the  wind  was  adverse,  they  prayed; 
and,  as  it  changed,  one  opened  his  mind  to  the  other  on  the 
power  of  prayer,  even  the  prayer  "of  a  man  subject  to  Uke 
passions  as  we  are."     A  devout  listener  confessed  himself  to  be 
an  unconverted  man ;  and  they  reminded  him  of  the  i)romi8e  to 
him  that  is  poor  and  of  a  contrite  spirit,  and  trembleth  at  the 
word.    As  they  sailed  pleasantly  with  a  favoring  breeze,  at 
the  hoiir  of  evening  prayer  they  made  a  covenant  with  each 
other,  like  Jacob  of  old,  and  resolved  by  the  grace  of  Christ  to 
cast  all  the  strange  gods  which  were  in  their  hearts  into  the 
depths  of  the  sea.     In  February,  a  storm  grew  so  high  that 
not  a  sail  could  be  set ;  and  they  raised  their  voices  in  prayer 
and  song  amid  the  tempest,  for  to  love  the  Lord  Jesus  as  a 
brother  gave  consolation.    At  Charieston,  Oglethorpe,  on  the 
eighteenth  of  March  1734,  bade  them  welcome ;  and,  in  five 
days  more,  the  wa^'farers,  whose  home  was  beyond  the  skies, 
pitched  their  tents  near  Savannah. 

It  remained  to  select  for  them  a  residence.  To  cheer  their 
principal  men  as  they  toiled  through  the  forest  and  across 
brooks,  Oglethoi'pej  having  provided  Ih     -%  joined  the  party. 


m 
f. 


it 

irt. 


i..i  "'|: 


TWi 


:i 


386    BRITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1(588  TO  1748.     pautiii.;  oh.  xvi. 

By  tho  aid  of  blazed  trees  and  Indian  guides,  ho  made  hig 
way  t]irou(,di  morasses;  a  fallen  froe  served  as  a  bridge  over  u 
stream,  wliieh.  the  horses  swam ;  at  night  he  encamped  with 
them  abroad  round  a  fire,  and  shared  every  fatigue,  till  the 
spot  for  their  village  was  chosen,  and,  like  tho  rivulet  which 
formed  its  border,  was  named  Ebenezor.  There  they  built 
their  dw(dling8,  and  there  they  resolved  to  raise  a  colunm  of 
stone  in  token  of  gratitude  to  God,  whoso  providence  had 
brought  them  safely  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

In  the  same  year,  the  towTi  of  Augusta  was  laid  out,  soon 
to  become  the  favorite  resort  of  Indian  traders.  The  good 
success  of  Oglethorpe  made  the  colony  increase  rapidly  by 
volunteer  emigi-ants.  «  His  undertaking  will  succeed,"  said 
Johnson,  the  governor  of  South  Carolina ;  "  for  he  nobly  de- 
votes all  his  powers  to  serve  the  poor,  and  rescue  them  from 
their  wretchedness."  "  Ho  bears  a  great  love  to  the  servants 
and  children  of  God,"  wrote  the  pastor  of  Ebenezer.  "  He 
has  taken  care  of  us  to  tho  utinost  of  his  ability."  "  God  has 
so  blessed  his  presence  and  his  regulations  in  the  land,  that 
others  would  not  in  many  years  have  accomplished  what  he 
has  brought  about  in  one." 

At  length,  in  April  1734,  after  a  residence  in  America  of 
about  fifteen  months,  Oglotliorpo  sailed  for  England,  talcing 
with  him  Tomo-chichi  and  others  of  t.'ie  Creeks  to  do  homage 
at  court,  and  to  invigorate  the  confidence  of  England  in  the 
destiny  of  the  new  colony,  which  was  shown  to  possess  the 
friendship  of  the  surrounding  Indian  nations. 

His  absence  left  Georgia  to  its  own  development.  For  its 
franchises,  it  had  only  the  system  of  juries ;  and,  though  it 
could  not  prosper  but  by  self-reliance,  legislation  by  its  o\vn 
representatives  was  not  begun. 

The  laws  ^vhich  the  trustees  had  instituted  were  irk- 
some. To  prevent  the  monopoly  of  lands,  to  insure  an  estate 
even  to  the  sons  of  the  unthrifty,  to  strengthen  a  frontier 
colony,  the  trustees,  deceived  by  reasonings  from  the  system 
of  feudal  law  and  by  their  own  prejudices  as  members  of 
tho  landed  aristocracy  of  England,  had  granted  lands  only  in 
tad  male.  Here  was  a  grievance  that  soon  occasioned  a  just 
discontent. 


T  lir.  ;   OH.  XVI. 


1734-1786. 


COLONIZATION  OF  OEOUGIA 


A  n-pilafio!!  which  prohibited  the  salo  of  rum  led  only  to 
cluiult'Htiiie  tniffic. 

A  third  nilo  for])ado  tho  iiitrodnctiou  of  slaves.  Tho 
priiiso  oi  Georgia  was  uttered  in  London  in  17U :  •  Let  ava- 
rice defend  it  as  it  will,  there  is  an  honest  reluctaneo  in  human- 
ity against  buying  and  selling,  and  regarding  those  of  our  own 
Fpecies  as  our  wealth  and  possession.  The  name  of  slavery  is 
here  unheard,  and  every  inhabitant  is  free  from  uuchosen  mas- 
ters and  oppression."  "Slavery,"  Oglethorpe  relates,  "is 
a<;aiiivt  the  gospel,  as  well  as  tho  fundamental  law  of  England. 
Wo  refused,  im  tmstees,  to  make  a  law  -ormitting  such  a  hor- 
rid crime."  "  The  purchase  of  negroes  is  forbidden,"  wrote 
Von  Reck,  "  on  account  of  the  vicinity  of  the  Spaniards ; » 
and  this  was  doubtless  "  the  governmental  view."  The  colony 
was  "an  asylum  to  receive  the  distressed.  It  was,  therefore, 
necessaiy  not  to  permit  slaves  in  such  a  country ;  for  slaves 
starve  the  poor  laborer-."  But,  after  a  little  more  than  two 
yeai-s,  several  of  the  so-called  "  better  sort  of  people  in  Sa- 
vannah "  addressed  a  petition  to  tho  trustees  "  for  the  use  of 
negroes." 

In  England,  Oglethoq)e  won  imiversal  favor  for  his  colony, 
the  youngest  child  of  the  colonial  enterprise  of  England.  Par- 
liament continued  its  benefactions ;  the  king  exjiressed  interest 
in  a  province  wliich  l)ore  his  name.  In  May  1735,  the  first 
colony  of  Moravians,  nine  in  number,  was  led  to  Savannah  by 
the  devoted  evangelist,  Spangenberg.  He  has  left  the  best 
digest  of  the  Moravian  faith,  of  which  the  leading  idea  is  the 
worship  of  the  Saviour,  the  trium])hant  Lamb  of  God.  A 
company  of  Gaelic  Highlanders  established  New  Inverness, 
"where  wild  Altama  murmured  to  their  woe." 

On  the  sixth  of  February  173G,  three  lumdred  persons,  con- 
ducted by  Oglethorpe,  landed  not  far  from  Tyl)ee  island, "  where 
they  all  knelt  and  returned  thanks  to  God  for  having  safely 
arrived  in  Georgia."  Among  that  group  was  a  re-enforcement 
of  Moravians— men  who  had  a  faith  above  fear;  "whose 
wives  and  children  even  were  not  afraid  to  die ; "  whose  sim- 
plicity and  solemnity  in  their  conferee  ps  and  prayers  seemed 
to  revive  the  primitive  -  assemblies,  whcj  o  form  and  state  were 
not,  but  Paul  the  tent-maker,  or  Peter  the  fisherman,  presided 


1 1 


■I ' 

f'  '  V 


'ill 


288     lilairsn  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  m. ;  on.  xvr. 

mtli  tlic  demonstration  of  the  Spirit."    There,  too,  were  Jolin 
and  Charles  Wesley — the  latter  selected  as  the  secretary  to 
Oglethorpe,  the  former  eager  to  become  an  apostle  to  the  In- 
dians— fervent  enthusiasts,  who  by  their  own  confession  were 
not  yet  disciplined  to  a  peaceful  possession  of  their  souls.    The 
elder  of  them,  by  his  intercourse  with  the  Moravians,  was 
aided  in  forming  his  system  of  religious  organization.     "  That 
they  were  8imi)le  of  heart,  but  yet  that  their  ideas  were  dis- 
turbed,"  was  the  judgment  of  Zinzendorf.    "  Our  end  in  leav- 
ing our  native  country,"  said  they,  "  is  not  to  gain  riches  and 
honor,  but  singly  this — to  live  wholly  to  the  glory  of  God." 
They  desired  to  make  Georgia  a  rehgious  colony,  having  no 
theory  but  devotion,  no  ambition  but  to  (piicken  the  sentiment 
of  piety.    The  reformation  of  Luther  and  Calvin  had  included 
a  political  revolution  ;  its  advocates  went  abroad  on  the  whirl- 
wind, and  overthrew  institutions  which  time  had  consecrated 
and  selfishness  perverted.     But  the  age  in  which  rehgious  and 
political  excitements  were  united  had  passed  away ;  with  the 
period  of  commercial  influence,  fanaticism  had  no  sympathy. 
Mystic  piety,  more  intense  by  its  aversion  to  the  theories  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  appeared  as  the  rainbow  ;  and  Wesley 
was  as  the  sower,  who  comes  after  the  clouds  have  been  lifted 
up  and  the  floods  have  subsided,  and  scatters  his  seed  in  the 
serene  hour  of  peace.     The  new  devotees,  content  to  remain 
under  the  guardianship  of  the  established  government,  sought 
to  enjoy  the  exquisite  delights  of  religious  sensibihty,  not  to 
overthrow  dynasties  or  to  break  the  bonds  of  colonial  depend- 
ence.    By  John  Wesley,  who  remained  in  America  less  than 
two  years,  no  share  in  moulding  the  political  institutions  of 
the  colony  was  exerted  or  desired.     As  he  strolled  through 
natural  avenues  of  palmettoes  and  evergreen  hollies  and  woods 
sombre  with  hanging  moss,  his  heart  gushed  forth  in  addi-esses 
to  God : 

Is  there  a  thing  beneath  the  sun, 

That  strives  ^vith  Thee  my  heart  to  share  ? 
Ah  I  tear  it  thence,  and  reign  alone — 
The  Lord  of  every  motion  there. 
The  austerity  of  his  maxims  involved  him  in  controversies 
with  the  ndxed  settlers  of  Georgia :  and  his  residence  in  Anieri- 


1786. 


COLONIZATION  OF  GEORGIA. 


289 


ca  preceded  liis  influence  on  the  religious  culture  of  its  people. 
His  brotlier  was  still  less  suited  to  shape  events;  the  priva- 
tions and  hardships  of  the  wilderness  among  rough  associates 
plunged  his  gentle  nature  into  the  depths  of  melancholy  and 
homesickness ;  and,  at  this  time,  Ins  journal  is  not  a  record  of 
events  around  him,  but  rather  a  chronicle  of  what  passed 
within  himself,  the  groundless  jealousies  of  a  pure  mind,  ren- 
dered suspicious  by  pining  disease.  When  afterward  George 
Whitefield  came,  his  mtrepid  nature  did  not  lose  its  cheei-ful- 
ness  in  the  encounter  Avith  the  wilderness  ;  incited  by  the  ex- 
ample of  the  Lutheran  Salzburgers  and  the  fame  of  the  Orphan 
House  at  Halle,  he  founded  and  sustained  an  orphan  house  at 
Savannah  by  contributions  which  his  eloquence  extorted.  He 
visited  all  the  provinces  from  Florida  to  the  uortliern  frontier, 
and  made  his  grave  in  Kew  England ;  but  he  swayed  no  logis^ 
latures,  and  is  chiefly  remembered  for  his  power  of  reviving 
religious  convictions  in  the  nmltitude. 

Oglethorpe,  in  Febniary  1736,  visited  the  Salzburgers  at 
Ebenezer,  to  praise  their  good  husbandry  and  to  select  the  site 
of  their  new  settlement ;  of  which  the  lines  were  no  sooner 
draAvn,  and  the  streets  laid  out,  than  huts  covered  with  bark 
rose  up,  and  the  labors  of  the  field  were  renewed.  In  a  few 
years,  the  produce  of  raw  silk  by  the  Germans  amounted  to 
ten  thousand  pounds  a  year ;  and  indigo  became  a  staple.  In 
earnest  memorials,  they  deprecated  the  emplo^anent  of  negro 
slaves,  pleading  tlie  abihty  of  the  white  man  to  toil  even  under 
the  suns  of  Georgia.  Their  religious  affections  bound  them 
together  in  the  unity  of  brotherhood  ;  their  controversies  were 
decided  among  themselves  ;  every  event  of  life  had  its  moral ; 
and  the  fervor  of  their  worship  never  disturbed  their  healthy 
tranquillity  of  judgment.     They  were  cheerful  and  at  peace. 

From  the  Salzburger  towns,  Oglethorpe  hastened  to  the 
soutliward,  passing  in  a  scout  boat  through  the  narrow  inland 
channels,  which  delighted  the  eye  by  their  sea-green  color  and 
stillness,  and  were  sheltered  by  woods  of  pines,  and  evergreen 
oaks,  and  cedars,  that  came  close  to  the  water's  side.  On  th-^ 
second  day,  aided  by  the  zeal  of  his  own  men  and  by  Indians 
skilful  I  using  the  oar,  he  arrived  at  St.  Simon's  island.  A 
fii-e,  kindling  tlic  long  grass  ou  au  old  Indian  field,  cleared  a 

VOL.   II. — 19 


11 

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mi  ,  .  ^   : 

290    BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  in.;  oh.  xti. 


i    I 


II  P 


space  for  the  streets  of  Frederiea ;  and,  amid  the  mirthful 
carols  of  the  rice,  the  red  and  the  mocking  bird,  a  fort  was 
constructed  on  the  centre  of  the  bliiil,  with  four  bastions  com- 
manding the  river  and  protecting  the  palmetto  bowers,  which 
each  twenty  feet  by  fourteen,  were  set  up  on  forks  and  poles 
in  regular  rows ;  a  tight  and  convenient  shelter. 

It  was  but  ten  miles  from  Frederiea  to  the  Scottish  settle- 
ment at  Darien.  To  give  heart  to  them  by  his  presence,  Ogle- 
thorpe, in  the  Hiq;hland  costume,  sailed  up  the  Alatamaha; 
and  all  the  Highlanders,  as  they  perceived  his  approach,  as- 
sembled mth  their  plaids,  broadswords,  targets,  and  iire-arms, 
to  bid  him  welcome.  The  brave  men  were  pleased  that  a  town 
was  to  be  settled,  that  ships  were  to  come  up  so  neai-  them, 
and  that  they  now  had  a  communication  by  land  vnth  Savan- 
nah.    Trees  had  been  blazed  all  the  way  for  a  "  horse-road." 

It  remained  to  vindicate  the  boundaries  of  Georgia.  With 
the  Highlanders  as  volunteers,  he  explored  the  channels  south 
of  Frederiea ;  and,  on  the  island  which  took  the  name  of  Cum- 
berland, he  marked  out  a  fort  to  be  called  St.  Andrew's. 
Then,  claiming  the  St.  John's  river  as  the  boundary  of  the 
territory  possessed  by  the  Indian  subjects  of  England  at  the 
time  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  on  the  southern  extremity  of 
Amelia  island,  he  planted  the  Fort  St.  George  for  the  defence 
of  the  British  frontier. 

The  nimors  of  his  intended  expedition  had  reached  the 
wilderness ;  and,  in  May,  the  lichees,  all  ])rilliantly  painted, 
came  down  to  form  an  alliance  and  to  grasp  the  hatchet. 
Long  speeches  and  the  exchange  of  presents  were  followed  by 
the  war-dance.  Tomo-chichi  appeared  vtdth  his  warriors,  ever 
ready  to  hunt  the  buffalo  along  the  frontiers  of  Florida,  or  to 
engage  in  warfare  with  the  few  planters  on  that  peninsula. 

Gglethorpj  knew  that  the  Spaniards  had  been  tampering 
with  his  allies,  and  were  willing  to  cut  off  the  settlements  in 
Georgia  at  a  blow ;  l)ut,  regardless  of  incessant  toil;  securuig 
domains  not  to  his  famil}^,  but  to  emigrants ;  not  even  appro- 
priating to  himself  permanently  a  cottage  or  a  single  lot  of 
fifty  acres— he  Avas  determined  to  assert  the  claims  of  Eng- 
land, and  preserve  his  colony  as  the  bulwark  of  English  North 
America.     "To  mo,"  said  he  to  Charios  Wesley,  "death  is 


1730-1737. 


COLONIZATION  OF  GE'^RGIA. 


201 


nothing."  "If  separate  spirits,"  he  added,  "regard  our  little 
coneems,  they  do  it  as  men  regard  the  folHes  of  their  ehild- 
liood." 

For  that  season,  active  hostilities  were  avoided  by  negotia- 
tion. The  Fort  St.  George  was  abandoned,  but  St.  Andrew's, 
commanding  the  approach  to  the  St.  Mary's,  was  maintained.' 
Hence,  the  St.  Mary's  ultimately  became  the  boundary  of  the 
colony  of  Oglethorpe. 

The  friendship  of  the  red  men  insured  the  safety  of  the 
EngUsh  settlements.     In  July  1736,  the  Chicasas,  animated 
by  their  victory  over  the  Illinois  and  Artaguette,  came  down 
to  narrate  how  unexpectedly  they  had  been  attacked,  how  vic- 
toriously they  had  resisted,  with  what  exultations  they  had 
consumed  their  prisoners  by  fire.     Ever  attached  to  the  Eng- 
lish, they  now  deputed  thirty  warriors,  with  their  civil  sachem 
and  war-chief,  to  make  an  alliance  with  Oglethorpe,  whose 
fame  liad  reached  the  Mississippi.     They  brought  for  him  an 
Indian  chaplet,  made  from  the  spoils  of  their  enemies,  glitter- 
ing with  feathers  of  many  hues,  and  enriched  with  the  horns 
of  buffaloes.     The  Creeks,  Cherokees,  and  Chicasas  were  his 
unwavering  friends,  and  even  the  Choctas  covenanted  with 
liim  to  receive  English  traders.     To  hasten  preparations  for 
the  impending  contest  mth  Spain,  Oglethorpe  embarked  for 
England.    Arriving  in  January  1737,  he  could  report;  to  the 
trustees  "  that  the  colony  was  doing  well ;  that  Indians  from 
seven  hundred  miles'  distance  had  conf ede vated  mth  him,  and 
acknowledged  the  authority  of  his  sovereign." 


i  ,   \.\ 


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yxp    I. 


!! '  ti 


292    BRITISU  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    pabt  hi.  ;  oh.  xvu. 


CHAPTER    XYII. 

WAB  BETWEEN   GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   SPAIN. 

1739-1748. 

Receiving  a  commission  as  brigadier-general,  with  a  mili- 
tary command  extending  over  Soutn  Carolina,  Oglethorpe, 
in  Great  Britain,  raised  and  disciplined  a  regiment ;  and,  after 
an  absence  of  more  than  a  yeai-  and  a  half,  in  1738  returned  to 
Frederica.  There  his  soldiers  completed  the  walls  of  the  for- 
tress.    Its  ivy-mantled  ruins  are  still  standing. 

At  Savannah,  he  was  welcomed  by  salutes  and  bonfires. 
But  he  refused  any  alteration  in  the  tenures  of  land.  In  an- 
swer to  "repeated  applications"  for  the  allowance  of  slaves, 
he,  with  the  applause  of  the  trustees,  "persisted  in  denying 
the  use  of  them,"  and  declared  that,  if  they  should  be  intro- 
duced into  Georgia,  "  he  would  have  no  further  concern  with 
the  colony." 

By  frankness  and  fidelity  Oglethorpe  preserved  the  affec- 
tion of  the  natives.  The  Chicasas  renewed  their  covenants  of 
friendship.  The  Muskohgees  had,  from  the  first,  regarded  him 
as  tlieir  father ;  and,  as  he  knew  their  language,  they  appealed 
to  him  directly  in  every  emergency. 

In  the  summer  of  1739,  the  civil  and  war  chiefs  of  the 
Muskohgees  held  a  general  council  in  Cusitas,  on  the  Chatta- 
hoochee ;  and  Oglethorpe  came  into  the  large  square  of  their 
council-place,  distributed  presents,  and  renewed  and  explauied 
their  covenants.  It  was  then  agreed  that  the  lands  from  the 
St.  John's  to  the  Savannah,  from  the  sea  to  the  mountains, 
belonged  of  ancient  right  to  the  Muskohgees.  Their  cession 
to  the  English  of  the  land  on  the  Savannah,  as  far  as  the 


1789.        WAR  BETWEEN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  SPAIN.        £93 

Ogeechee,  and  along  the  coast  to  the  St.  John's  as  far  into  the 
interior  as  tlie  tide  flows,  was,  with  a  fe,v  reservations,  eon- 
Unned.  The  right  of  pre-emption  was  reserved  for  the  trus- 
tees of  Georgia,  who  agreed  never  to  take  land  without  the 
consent  of  its  ancient  proprietaries. 

In  England,  Walpole  pleaded  for  peace  with  Spain  in  the 
name  of  honor,  justice,  and  the  true  interests  of  commerce. 
But  the  active  English  mind,  eager  for  sudden  gains  and 
soured  by  disappointment,  was  resolved  on  illici,   ■.-affiv.,  or  on 
plunder  and  conquest.     A  war  was  desired,  not  because  Eng- 
land insisted  on  cutting  logwood  in  the  bay  of  Honduras,  whe?e 
Spain  claimed  a  jurisdiction  and  had  founded  no  settlements ; 
nor  because  the  South  Sea  company  differed  with  the  king  of 
Spain  as  to  the  balances  of  their  accounts ;  nor  yet  because*' the 
boundary  between  Carolina  and  Florida  was  still  in  dispute— 
these  differences  could  have  been  adjusted— but,  as  all  agree, 
because  English  "merchants  wore  not  permitted  to  smuggle 
with  impunity."    A  considerable  pari;  of  the  population  of 
Jamaica  was  sustained  by  the  profits  of  the  contraband  trade 
with  Spanish  ports ;  the  annual  ship  tc  Porto  Bello,  which  the 
assiento  permitted,  was  followed  at  a  distance  by  smaller  ves- 
sels ;  and  fresh  bales  of  goods  were  nightly  introduced  in  the 
place  of  those  that  had  been  discharged  during  the  day.     Brit- 
ish smugghng  vessels,  jiretending  distress,  would  claim  the  right 
by  treaty  to  enter  Spanish  harijors  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
The  colonial  commerce  of  Spain  was  almost  annihilated.     In 
former  days,  the  tonnage  of  tlie  fleet  of  Cadiz  had  amounted 
to  fifteen  thousand  tons ;  it  was  now  reduced  to  two  thousand 
tons,  and  had  uo  oflice  but  to  carry  the  royal  revenues  from 
America. 

The  monarch  of  Spain,  busy  in  celebrating  auto-da-fes  and 
Imniing  heretics,  and  regarding  as  an  affair  of  state  the  ques- 
tion who  should  bo  revered  as  the  true  patron  saint  of  his  king- 
dom, was  at  last  roused  to  address  compbnnts  to  England,  but 
they  were  turned  aside ;  and  when  the  Spanish  officers  showed 
vigor  in  executing  the  laws  of  Spain,  the  English  merchants 
resented  their  interference  as  wanton  aggressions.  One  Jen- 
kms,  who  to  smuggling  had  joined  piratical  maraudings,  was 
summoned  to  the  bai-  of  the  house  of  commons  to  give  evi- 


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294  BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1G88  TO  1748.    part  hi.;  on.  xvii. 

dence.  The  tale  which  he  was  disciplined  to  tell  of  the  loss 
of  one  of  his  ears  by  Spanish  cruelty,  of  dishonor  offered  to 
the  British  flag  and  the  British  crown,  was  received  without 
distrust.  "What  were  your  feelings  when  in  the  hands  of 
such  barbarians  'i "  was  asked  by  a  member,  as  his  mutilated 
ear  was  exliibited.  "  I  commended  my  soul  to  my  God,"  an- 
swered the  imj)udent  fabler,  "  and  my  cause  to  my  country." 
"  We  have  no  need  of  allies  to  enable  us  to  command  justice  • 
the  story  of  Jenkins  will  raise  volunteers : "  was  the  cry  of 
Pulteney,  iu  his  zeal  to  overthrow  the  administration  of  Wal- 
pole.  The  clamor  of  orators  was  seconded  by  the  poets ;  Pope, 
in  his  dying  notes,  sneered  at  the  timidity  which  was  wiUing 
to  avoid  offence, 

And  own  the  Spaniard  did  a  waggish  thing, 
Who  cropped  our  ears,  and  sent  them  to  the  king ; 
and  Samuel  Johnson,  in  more  earnest  language,  exclaimed : 
Has  Heaven  reserved,  in  pity  to  the  poor, 
No  pathless  waste  or  undiscovered  shore  ? 
No  secret  island  in  the  boundless  main  ? 
No  peaceful  desert  yet  unclaimed  by  Spain  ? 
In  January  1739,  a  convention  was  signed.     The  mutual 
claims  for  damages  were  balanced  and  Hquidated ;  and  while 
the  king  of  Spain  demanded  of  the  South  Sea  company  sixty- 
eight  thousand  pounds,  as  due  <-o  him  for  his  share  of  their 
proiits,  he  agreed  to  pay,  as  an  indemnity  to  British  merchants 
for  losses  sustained  by  unwarranted  seizures,  the  sum  of  ninety- 
five  thousand  pounds.    On  these  questions  no  dispute  remained 
but  the  trivial  one  whether  the  British  government  should 
guarantee  to  Spain  the  acknowledged  debt  of  the  South  Sea 
company.     For  Florida  it  was  agreed  that  each  nation  was  to 
retain  its  present  possessions  till  commissioners  could  marl:  the 
boundary.     In  other  words,  England  was  to  hold  undistiirbed 
jurisdiction  over  the  country  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Mai'y's. 

Walpole  resisted  the  clamor  of  the  mercantile  interest,  and, 
opposing  the  duke  of  Newcastle,  advocated  the  acceptance  of 
the  convention.  "  It  requires  no  great  abilities  in  a  minister," 
he  said,  "to  pursue  such  measures  as  may  make  a  war  unavoid- 
able.    But  how  many  ministers  liave  known  the  art  of  avoid- 


17^9-1741.    WAR  EETWllEN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  SPAIN.  295 

iri^  war  by  making  a  safe  and  honorable  peace  ? "     "  The  con- 
vention," said  William  Pitt  in  his  first  speech  en  American 
affairs,  "is  insecure,  lusatisfactory,  and  dishonorable:  I  tliink, 
from  my  soul,  it  is  nothing  but  a  8tii)ulation  for  national 
ignominy.     Your  despairing  merchants  and  the  voice  of  Eng- 
land have  condeumcd  it.     Be  the  guilt  of  it  upon  the  head  of 
the  advisers ;  God  forbid  that  this  committee  should  share  the 
guilt  by  approving  it."     ]]ut  Pulteney  and  his  associates  were 
in  the  Avrong.     The  original  documents  demonstrate  "  the  ex- 
treme injustice  "  of  their  opposition.     "  It  was  my  fortune," 
said  Edmund  Curke,  "  to  converse  with  those  who  principally 
excited  that  clamor.    None  of  them,  no,  not  one,  did  in  the 
least  defend  the  measure,  or  attempt  to  justify  their  conduct." 
In  an  ill  hour  for  herself,  in  a  happy  one  for  America, 
England,  on  the  twenty-third  of  October  1739,  declared  war 
against  Spain.    If  the  rightfulness  of  the  European  colonial  sys- 
tem be  conceded,  her  declaration  was  a  wanton  invasion  of  it 
for  iinmediate  selfish  purposes ;  but,  in  endeavoring  to  open 
tlie  ports  of  Spanish  America  to  the  mercantile  enterprise  of 
her  own  people,  she  was  beginning  a  war  on  colonial  monopoly. 
Sir  Robert  Wa]i)ole  remained  chief  minister  till  the  end  of 
January  1742.     After  an  unstable  period  of  nineteen  months, 
his  friend,  Henry  Pelham,  took  the  lead  and  held  it  tiU  death, 
but  neither  A7alpole  nor  Pelham  was  fitted  to  conduct  a  war. 

To  acquire  possession  of  the  richest  portions  of  Spanish 
America,  Anson,  in  1740,  was  sent  with  a  small  squadron  into 
tlie  Pacific;  biit  as  he  passed  Cape  Horn,  the  winds,  whose 
fury  made  an  ordinary  gale  appear  as  a  gentle  breeze,  scattered 
his  ships ;  one  after  another  of  them  M-as  wrecked  or  disabled ; 
and  at  last,  with  a  single  vessel,  after  circumnavigating  the 
glolje,  he  returned  to  England,  laden  with  spoils  and  rich  in 
adventures. 

In  J^ovember  1739,  Edward  Vernon,  with  six  men-of-war, 
appeared  off  Porto  BcUo.  The  attack  on  the  feeble  and  ill- 
supplied  garrison  began  on  the  twenty-first ;  and,  on  the  next 
day,  Vernon,  losing  but  seven  men,  was  in  possession  of  the 
town  and  the  castles.  A  booty  of  ten  thousand  dollars  and  the 
demolition  of  the  fortifications  were  the  sole  fruits  of  the  enter- 
prise ;  and,  having  acquired  no  rightful  claim  to  glory,  Vernon 


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296  BRITl^n  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    part  m. ;  oh.  xvii. 

returned  to  Jamaica.  In  1740,  lie  took  and  demolished  Fort 
Chagre,  on  this  side  of  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  but  mthout 
result,  for  want  of  the  co-operation  of  Anson  at  Panama.  Ver- 
non belonged  to  the  opposition ;  and  the  enemies  of  Walpole 
exalted  his  praises,  till  his  heroism  was  made  a  proverb,  his 
birthday  signalized  by  lights  and  bonlires,  and  his  head  se- 
lected as  the  favorite  ornament  for  sign-posts. 

England  prepared  to  send  to  the  West  Indies  by  far  the 
largest  fleet  and  army  that  had  ever  appeared  in  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  summoned  the  colonies  north  of  Carolina  to  con- 
tribute four  battalions  to  the  armament.  The  requisition  was 
generally  and  zealously  complied  with ;  even  Pennsylvania,  by 
a  vote  of  money,  enabled  its  governor  to  enlist  troops  for  the 
occasion.  "  It  will  not  be  amiss,"  wrote  Sir  Charles  Wager  to 
Admiral  Vernon,  "for  both  French  and  Spaniards  to  be  a 
month  or  two  in  the  West  Indies  before  us,  that  they  may  be 
half-dead  and  half-roasted  before  our  fleet  arrives."  So  the 
expedition  from  England  did  not  begin  its  voyage  till  October, 
and,  losing  the  commander  of  its  land  forces  on  the  way,  reached 
Jamaica  in  the  early  part  of  the  following  year.  The  inex- 
periencid,  iiTcsolute  Wentworth  succeeded  to  the  command  of 
the  army;  the  naval  force  a\  -;  under  Vernon,  who  was  im- 
patient of  contradiction,  and  ill  disposed  to  endure  even  an 
associate.  The  enterprise,  instead  of  having  one  good  leader, 
had  two  bad  ones. 

Wasting  at  Jamaica  the  time  from  the  ninth  of  January 
1741,  till  near  the  end  of  the  month,  at  last,  with  a  fleet  of 
twenty-nine  ships  of  the  line,  beside  about  eighty  smaller  ves- 
sels, with  fifteen  thousand  sailors,  and  twelve  thousand  land 
troops,  all  thoroughly  equipped,  Venion  weighed  anchor. 
Havana  lay  within  three  days'  sail ;  its  conquest  would  have 
made  England  supreme  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  But  he  in- 
sisted on  hunting  for  the  fleet  of  the  French  and  Spaniards; 
and  the  French  had  already  left  the  fatal  clime. 

The  council  of  w^ar,  yielding  to  his  vehemence,  next  re- 
solved to  attack  Carthagena,  the  strongest  place  in  Spanish 
j^jnerica.  The  fleet  appeared  before  the  town  on  the  fourth 
of  March,  and  lost  five  days  by  inactivity.  Fifteen  days  were 
required  to  take  the  f oi-tress  near  the  entrance  to  the  harbor ; 


m. ;  OH.  xvii. 


1741-1743.  WAR  BETWEEN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  SPAIN.  297 

the  Spaniards  tliemselves  abandoned  Castillo  Grande.  It  re- 
iimined  to  stonn  Fort  San  Lazaro,  which  commanded  the  jwn. 
The  attack,  devised  without  judo^ment,  was  made  by  twelve 
hundred  men  with  intrepidity;  but  the  admiral  gave  no  timely 
aid  to  the  land  foices;  the  assailants  were  repulsed  with  the 
loss  of  half  their  number;  and  discord  aggravated  defeat.  Ere 
long,  rains  set  in.  The  fever  of  the  low  country  in  the  tropics 
l)egan  its  rapid  work ;  battalions  were  "poisoned  l)y  the  air  and 
crippled  by  the  dews;"  the  dead  were  cast  into  the  sea,  some- 
times without  winding-sheet  or  sinkers;  the  hospital  ships  were 
crowded  in  the  three  days  that  elapsed  between  the  desci'ut  and 
re-embarkation;  the  effective  land  force  dwindled  from  six- 
thousand  six  hundred  to  tliree  thousand  two  hundred.  The 
English  could  only  demolisli  the  fortifications  and  retire.' 

Wlien,  late  in  November,  the  ex-pedition  which  was  to 
have  prepared  the  way  for  conquering  Mexico  and  Peru  re- 
turned to  Jamaica,  the  total  loss  of  lives  was  estimated  at  about 
twenty  thousand,  of  whom  few  fell  by  the  enemy.  Of  tlie 
recniits  from  the  colonies,  nine  out  of  ten  perished. 

In  March  1742,  Yernon  and  Wentworth  planned  an  expe- 
dition against  Panama;  but,  on  reaching  Porto  Bello,  the 
design  was  voted  impracticable,  and  they  returned.  Mean- 
time, the  commerce  of  England  with  Spain  Avas  destroyed ;  the 
assiento  was  interrupted ;  even  the  contraband  was  impaired ; 
while  English  ships  became  the  plunder  of  privateers.  Eng- 
land had  made  no  acquisitions,  and  had  inflicted  on  the  Spanish 
West  Indies  far  less  evil  than  she  herself  had  suffered. 

On  receiving  instructions  from  England  of  the  approaching 
war  vnth  Spain,  Oglethorpe,  before  the  close  of  the  year,  ex- 
tended the  boundaries  of  Georgia  once  more  to  the  St.  John's, 
and  in  the  first  week  of  1740  he  en^-red  Florida.  Ee-enforce- 
ments  from  South  Carolina  were  delayed  so  long  that  June 
had  come  before  he  could  lead  six  hundred  regular  troops, 
four  hundred  Carolina  militia,  and  two  hundred  Indian  auxili- 
aries, to  the  walls  of  St.  Augustine.  The  garrison,  commanded 
by  Mor'  i-  o,  a  man  of  courage  and  energy,  had  already  re- 
ceived su,  plies.  Foi-  nearly  Ave  weeks,  Oglethoi-pe,  in  defiance 
of  the  strength  of  the  place,  endeavored  to  devise  measures 
for  victory^,  but  in  vain.     Thi-eatened  with  desertion  by  his 


298   BPvITISn  AAfERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     pabt  m. ;  en.  xvit. 

troops,  he  retuniecl  to  Frederica.     Tlie  few  prif   .lem  whom  he 
made  were  kindly  treated;  not  a  field,  nor  a  garden,  nor  a 
house  near  8t.  Augustine  was  injured,  unless  by  the  Indians 
whom  he  reproved  and  restrained. 

To  make  good  its  pretensions,  the  Sjmnish  government  re- 
solved on  invading  Geoi^na.  hi  lT-i2,  forces  from  Cuba  and 
a  ileet,  of  which  the  strength  has  been  greatly  exaggerated 
sailed  toward  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Mary's,  .''ort  William, 
Vv'hich  Oglethor])o  had  constructed  at  the  southern  extremity 
of  Cumberlanil  island,  defended  the  entrance  successfully,  till 
fighting  his  way  through  Spanish  vessels,  the  general  re-en- 
forced it.  Then  returning  to  St.  Simon's,  with  less  than  a 
thousand  men,  he  prepai'ed  for  defence. 

On  the  fifth  of  July,  seven  days  after  it  first  came  to  anchor 
off  Simon's  bar,  the  Spanish  fleet  of  thirty-six  vessels,  with  the 
tide  of  flood  and  a  brisk  gale,  entered  St.  Simon's  harbor,  and 
succeeded  in  passing  the  English  batteries  on  the  southern 
point  of  the  island.  Oglethorpe  signalled  his  ships  to  run  up 
to  Frederica,  and,  spiking  the  guns  of  the  lower  fort,  withdrew 
to  the  town ;  while  the  Spaniards  landed  at  Gascoin's  bluff,  and 
took  possession  of  the  camps  Avhich  the  English  had  abandoned. 
On  the  seventh  of  July,  a  body  of  the  invaders  advanced  within  a 
mile  of  the  town ;  they  were  met  by  the  general  with  the  Iligh- 
huid  company,  were  overcome,  pursued,  and  most  of  them  killed 
or  taken  prisoners.  A  second  party  marched  to  the  assault ;  at 
a  spot  where  the  narrow  avenue,  bending  with  the  edge  of  the 
morass,  forms  a  crescent,  they  fell  into  an  ambuscade,  and  were 
driven  back  with  a  loss  of  about  two  hundred  men.  The 
ground,  which  was  strown  with  the  dead,  took  the  name  of 
"the  Bloody  Marsh."  During  the  night  of  the  fouiteentli, 
the  Spaniards  re-embarked,  leaving  amnmnition  and  guns  be- 
hind them.  On  the  eighteentli,  as  they  proceeded  to  the 
south,  they  once  more  attacked  Fort  William,  which  was 
bravely  defended  by  Stuart  and  his  garrison  of  flfty  men.  On 
the  twenty-fourth  of  July,  Oglethorpe  could  order  a  general 
thanksgiving  for  the  end  of  the  invasion. 

In  1743,  after  a  year  of  tranquillity,  he  sailed  for  England, 
never  again  to  l)ehold  the  colony  to  which  he  consecrated  the 
disinterested  toils  of  te^  yeaiu     Gentle  i:i  nature  and  affable; 


1743-1744.  WAR  BETWEEN  GREAT  BRITALX  Ax\D  SPAIN.  209 

Imtiiif?  notliing  l,ut  papists  and  Spaiii ;  merciful  to  the  pris- 
oner; a  father  to  tlio  cniij^'rant;    the  unwaveriii<?  friend  of 
We«lcy ;  the  constant  henefactor  of  tlie  Moriivians ;  honestly 
zeilous  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians ;  invoking  for  tho 
negro  tho  panoply  of  tho  gospel ;  the  reliever  of  tho  poor— 
his  name  became  another  expression  for  "  vast  benevolence  of 
soul."    In  a  commercial  period,  a  loyalist  in  the  state,  and  a 
friend  to  tho  church,  he  seemed  even  in  youth  like  tho  relic  of 
a  more  chivalrous  century.     His  life  was  prolonged  to  near 
iivescoro ;  and,  even  in  its  last  year,  he  was  extolled  as  "  the 
finest  figure"  ever  seen,  the  impersonation  of  venerable  age ; 
Lis  faculties  wore  bright,  his  eye  nndimmod  ;  "heroic,  roman- 
tic, and  full  of  the  old  gallantry,"  he  was  like  the  sonnd  of  the 
lyre,  as  it  still  vibrates  after  the  spirit  that  sweeps  its  strino-s 
has  passed  away.     His  legislation  did  not  outlive  his  power. 
The  system  of  tail  male  went  gradually  into  oblivion  ;  the  im- 
portation of  rum  ceased  to  be  forbidden ;  slaves  from  Caro- 
lina were  hired  by  the  planter,  first  for  a  short  period,  next 
for  life  or  a  hundred  years.     Then  slavers  from  Africa  sailed 
directly  to  Savannah,  and  the  laws  against  them  were  not 
enforced.    Whitefield,  who   believed  that  God's  providence 
would  certainly  make  slavery  terminate  for  tho  advantage  of 
the  African,  pleaded  before  the  ti-ustees  in  its  favor,  as  essen- 
tial to  the  prosperity  of  Georgia.     The  Salzlmrgers,  in  1751, 
began  to  think  that  negro  slaves  might  bo  employed  in  a 
Christian  spirit ;  and  that,  if  the  negroes  were  treated  in  a 
Christian  manner,  their  change  of  country  would  prove  to 
them  a  benefit.     A  message  from  Germany  assisted  to  hush 
their  scruples :  "  If  you  take  slaves  in  faith  and  ^vith  tho  intent 
of  conducting  them  to  Christ,  the  action  will  not  bo  a  sin,  but 
may  prove  a  benediction." 

The  war  for  colonial  commerce  became  merged  in.  a  Euro- 
pean striggle,  invohang  the  principles  and  the  designs  which 
had  agitated  the  civilized  worid  for  centuries.  In  France,  in 
1740,  rieury,  like  Waljjole  desiring  to  adhere  to  tho  policy  of 
peace,  was,  like  Walpole,  ovemded  by  selfish  rivals.  As  he 
looked  upon  tho  commotions  in  Europe,  it  appeared  to  him 
that  the  end  of  the  worid  was  at  hand ;  and  it  was  so  with  re- 
gard to  tho  worid  of  feudalism.    He  expressed  his  aversion  to 


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800  BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.    i-abt  iii. ;  cu.  xvu. 

nil  wars;  and  when  tho  kin^  of  Spain — whom  natural  melan- 
choly, irritated  by  ill-health  and  losses,  i)roni[)tod  to  aI)dicato 
tho  throne — obtained  of  Louis  XV.,  under  his  own  hand  a 
promise  of  lifty  ships  of  the  line,  tho  prime  minister  explained 
his  i)nr|)oses :  "  I  do  not  propose  to  begin  a  war  with  En^dand, 
or  to  seize  or  to  annoy  one  Ih-itish  ship,  or  to  take  one  foot  of 
land  possessed  l)y  England  in  any  part  of  the  world.  Yet  I 
must  prevent  England  from  appropriating  to  itself  the  entire 
comjuerce  of  the  West  Indies."  "  France,  though  it  has  no 
treaty  with  Spain,  cannot  consent  that  the  Spanish  colonies 
should  fall  into  English  hands."  "  It  is  our  object,"  said  the 
statesmen  of  1' ranee,  "  not  to  make  war  on  England,  but  to 
induce  it  to  consent  to  a  peace." 

By  the  death  of  Charles  VI.,  in  October  1740,  tlio  extinc- 
tion of  the  male  line  of  the  house  of  Ilapsburg  raised  a  ques- 
tion about  the  Austrian  succession.  Treaties  to  Avhich  Franco 
was  a  party,  secured  the  Austrian  dominions  to  Maria  Theresa 
the  eldest  daughter  of  Charles  VI, ;  while,  from  an  erudite 
genealogy  or  the  complication  of  marriages,  the  sovereigns  of 
Spain,  of  Saxony,  and  of  liavaria,  each  derived  a  claim  to  tho 
undivided  heritage.  The  interest  of  the  French  king,  his  po- 
litical system,  his  faith  as  pledged  by  a  special  covenant,  the 
advice  of  his  minister,  demanded  of  him  the  recognition  of  the 
rights  of  Maria  Theresa ;  and  yet,  swayed  by  the  intrigues  of 
new  advisers  and  the  hereditary  hatred  of  Austria,  he  consti- 
tuted himscK  the  centre  of  an  alliance  against  her.  No  states- 
man of  that  day,  except  Frederic  of  Prussia,  seemed  to  per- 
ceive the  tendency  of  events.  As  England,  by  its  encroach- 
ments on  Spain,  enlarged  commercial  freedom  and  began  the 
independence  of  colonies,  so  France,  by  its  unjustifiable  war  on 
Austria,  floated  from  its  moorings,  and  foreboded  the  wreck  of 
absolute  monarchy. 

In  the  great  Em-opean  contest,  England,  true  to  its  policy 
of  connecting  itself  with  the  second  continental  power,  gave 
subsidies  to  Austria.  In  Februaiy  1744,  the  fleets  of  England 
and  S])ain  meet  in  the  IMediterranean  ;  that  of  England  is  vic- 
torious. In  March  of  the  same  year,  France  declares  war 
against  England,  in  April  against  Austria ;  and  the  conflicts  in 
America  are  lost  in  the  conflagration  of  Europe. 


li 

i 

m\im 

1744-1740.   WAH  BETWEEN  (iUEAT  BRITAIN  AND  SPAIN.   301 

Never  did  history  present  such  a  scene  of  confusion,  AVliile 
tho  .seltirthnuHH  wiiich  had  produced  the  general  war  was  itself 
without  faith,  it  made  use  of  all  tho  resources  that  were  offered 
by  ancient  creeds  or  ancient  animosities,  hy  rrotestantlsm  and 
tilt'  Roman  cliurch,  legitimacy  and  tho  mercantile  system,  tho 
ancient  rivalry  of  Franco  and  Austria,  the  recij)rocal  jealousies 
of  France  and  Enghuul.  The  enthusiasm  of  other  centnries  in 
relij,'iou8  strifes  was  extinct.  Europe  rocked  liko  the  ocean  on 
the  lidling  of  a  long  stonn. 

Tho  ahsonce  of  ]mrity  in  pnblic  life  left  an  opportunity  to 
the  Pretender,  in  1740,  to  invade  Great  Britain,  to  coiupier 
Scotland,  and  to  advance  within  four  days'  march  of  London. 
Tills  invasion  had  no  i)artisan8  in  America,  wliero  tho  house  of 
Hanover  was  respected  a.s  the  representative  of  Protestantism. 
In  England,  tho  vices  of  the  reigning  family  hud  produced  dis- 
gust and  indifference,  and  renewed  the  question  of  a  choice  of 
dynasty;  America  was  destined  to  elect  not  between  kings, 
bat  forms  of  government. 

On  the  continent,  France  gained  fruitless  victories.  Iler 
flag  waved  over  Prague  only  to  be  struck  down.  Saxony,  Ba- 
varia, her  allies  on  the  borders  of  Austria,  one  after  another, 
abandoned  her.  Tho  fields  of  blood  at  Fonienoy,  in  17J:5,  at 
Ptaucoux,  in  1740,  at  Laffeldt,  in  1747,  were  barren  of  results ; 
for  the  collision  of  annies  was  but  an  unmeaning  collision  of 
brute  force.  Statesmen  scoffed  at  virtue,  and  she  avenged  her 
self  l)y  bringing  their  counsels  to  nought.  In  vain  did  they 
marshal  all  Europe  in  hostile  array ;  they  had  no  torch  of  tnith 
to  pass  from  nation  to  nation ;  and  therefore,  though  they  could 
besiege  cities  and  burn  the  granges  of  the  peasant,  yet,  except 
as  their  purposes  were  overi-uled,  their  laviah  prodigality  of 
treasure  and  lionor  and  life  was  fruitless  to  humanity. 

One  result,  however,  of  which  the  character  did  not  at  first 
appear,  was  during  tho  conflict  achieved  in  tho  north.  Protes- 
tantism was  represented  on  tho  continent  by  no  great  power. 
Frederic  IL,  a  pupil  of  Leibnitz  and  Wolf,  took  advantage  of 
the  confusion,  and,  with  the  audacity  of  youth  and  strength,  and 
an  ambition  which  knew  where  to  set  bounds  to  its  own  impet- 
uosity, wrested  Silesia  from  Austria.  Indifferent  to  alliances 
with  powei-s  which,  having  no  fixed  aims,  could  have  no  fixed 


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302  BRITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi.  ;  on.  xvn. 

friendsliijis,  he  entered  into  the  contest  alone  and  witlidrew 
from  it  alone.  T\dce  assuming  amis  and  twice  concludiuo-  a 
separate  peace,  after  the  wars  of  1742  and  1745  he  retired  with 
a  guarantee  from  England  of  the  acquisitions  which,  aided 
by  the  po\vcr  of  opinion,  constituted  his  monarchy  the  central 
point  of  political  interest  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 

In  the  East  Indies,  the  commercial  companies  of  France 
and  England  struggled  for  supremacy.     The  empire  of  the 
Great  Mogul  lay  in  rains,  inviting  a  restorer.    But  who  should 
undertake  its  reconstruction?    An  active  instinct  urged  the 
commercial  Avorld  of  England  to  seek  a  nearer  connection  with 
Hindustan ;  again  the  project  of  discovering  a  north-western 
passage  to  India  was  renewed ;  and,  to  encom-age  the  spirit  of 
adventurous  curiosity,  the  English  parliament  promised  liberal 
rewards  for  success.     Tlie  French  company  of  the  Indies,  aided 
by  the  king,  confirmed  its  power  at  Pondicherry :  but,  as  the 
Sorbonne  had  published  to  a  credulous  nation  that  dividends  on 
the  stock  of  the  connnercial  company  would  be  usurious  and 
therefore  a  crime  against  religion,  the  corporation  was  imfor- 
tunate,  though  private  merchants  Avere  gaining  wealth  in  the 
Carnatic  and  on  the  Ganges.     The  brave  mariner  from  St. 
Malo,  the  entei-prising  La  Bourdonnais,  at  his  government  in 
the  isle  of  France,  devised  schemes  of  conquest.      But  the 
future  was  not  foreseen ;  and,  limited  by  instractions  from  the 
French  ministers  to  make  no  acquisitions  of  territory  what- 
ever, tliough,  with  the  aid  of  the  governor  of  Pondicherry,  he 
might  have  gained  for  France  the  ascendency  in  Ilindostan,  he 
pledged  his  word  of  honor  to  restore  Madras  to  the  English, 
w^hen,  in  September  174G,  he  proudly  planted  the  flag  of  France 
on  the  fortress  of  the  city  Avhich,  next  to  Goa  and  Batavia,  was 
the  most  opulent  of  the  European  establishments  in  India. 

Russia  was  iuAdted  to  take  part  in  the  contest ;  and,  in  her 
first  political  associations  with  our  country,  she  was  the  sti- 
pendiary of  England.  By  her  interference,  she  hastened  the 
return  of  peace.  But,  at  an  earlier  period  of  the  war,  she 
had,  in  the  opposite  direction,  drawm  near  our  present  bor- 
ders. After  the  empire  of  the  czars  liad  been  extended  over 
Kamtschatka,  Peter  the  Great  had  ])lanned  a  voyage  of  dis- 
covery along  tlie  sliores  of  Asia ;  and,  in  1728,  Behring  demon- 


[I. ;  on.  xvn. 


1741-1747.   WAR  BETWEEN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AxND  SPAIN.   303 

stratecl  the  insulation  of  that  continent  on  the  east.  In  1741 
the  same  intrepid  navigator,  saihng  with  two  vessels  from 
Olvhotsk,  discovered  the  narrow  straits  which  divide  the  con 
tiuents ;  caught  glimpses  of  the  mountains  of  north-west 
Ainenca;  traced  the  line  of  the  Aleutian  archipelago;  and, 
ui  tlie  midst  of  snows  and  ice,  fell  a  victim  to  fatigue  on 
a  desert  island  of  the  group  which  bears  his  name?  The 
gallant  Damsh  mariner  did  not  know  that  he  had  seen 
America ;  but  Russia,  by  right  of  discovery,  thus  gained  the 
north-west  of  onr  continent. 

While  the  states  of  Europe,  by  means  of  their  wide  rela- 
tions, were  fast  forming  the  nations  of  the  whole  world  into 
one  political  system,  the  few  incidents  of  war  in  our  America 
could  obtain  no  interest.  The  true  theatre  of  the  war  was 
not  there.  A  proposition  was  brought  forward  to  form  a 
umon  of  all  the  colonies,  for  the  purj^oses  of  defence;  but 
danger  was  not  so  universal  or  so  imminent,  as  to  furnish  a 
sufhcient  motive  for  a  confederacy.  The  peace  of  the  central 
produces  was  unbroken ;  the  government  of  Yii-ginia  feared 
dissenters  more  than  Spaniards. 

_  At  Lancaster,  in  Pennsylvania,  the  governor  of  that  state 

with  commissioners  from   Maryland  and   from   Virginia    in 

im  met  the  deputies  of  the  Iroquois,  who,  since  the  u/iion 

witJi  the  lusearoras,  became  known  as  the  Six  Nations     "  We 

conquered,';  said  they,  "the  country  of  the  Indians  beyond 

t he  mountains :  if  the  Virginians  ever  gain  a  good  right  to  it, 

1  must  be  from  us."    And,  for  about  four  hundred  pounds,  the 

deputies  ot  the  Six  Nations  made  "a  deed,  recognising  the 

kings  right  to  all  the  lands  that  are  or  shall  be,  by  his  maj- 

cstv  s  appointment,  in  the  colony  of  Virginia."     The  lands  in 

.Maryland  were  in  like  manner  confirmed  to  Lord  Baltimore, 

but  mth  definite  limits ;  the  deed  to  Virginia  extended  the 

claim  of  that  colony  indefinitely  in  the  West  and  North-west. 

1  Jie  events  of  the  war  of  England  with  France  were  then 
detailed  and  the  conditions  of  the  former  treaties  of  alliance 
were  called  to  mind.  "The  covenant  chain  between  us  and 
i^ennsylvama,"  replied  Canassatego,  "is  an  ancient  one,  and 
has  never  contracted  rust.  We  shall  have  all  your  country 
under  our  eye.     Before  ^vo  came  here,  we  told  the  French 


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304  BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    paet  hi.  ;  on.  xvii. 

governor  tliere  was  room  enougli  at  sea  to  fight,  where  he 
might  do  what  he  pleased ;  but  lie  should  not  come  upon  our 
land  to  do  any  damage  to  our  brethren."  After  a  pause,  it 
was  added :  "  The  Six  Nations  have  a  great  authority  over  the 
praying  Indians,  who  stand  in  the  gates  of  the  French:  to 
show  our  furtlier  care,  we  have  engaged  these  very  Indians 
and  other  allies  of  the  French  to  agree  with  us  that  they  will 
not  join  against  you."  The  Virginians  jjroposed  to  educate 
the  children  of  the  Iroquois  at  their  public  school.  "  Brother 
Assaragoa,"  they  roplied,  "  we  must  let  you  know  we  love  our 
children  too  well  to  send  them  so  great  a  way ;  and  the  Indians 
are  not  inclined  to  give  their  children  learning.  Your  invita- 
tion is  good,  but  our  customs  differ  from  yours."  And  then, 
acknowledging  the  rich  gifts  from  the  three  provinces,  they  con- 
tinued, as  if  aware  of  their  doom :  "  We  have  provided  a  small 
present  for  you ;  but,  alas !  we  are  poor,  and  shall  ever  remain 
so,  as  long  as  there  are  so  many  Indian  traders  among  us. 
Theirs  and  the  white  people's  cattle  eat  up  all  the  grass,  and 
make  deer  scarce."  And  they  presented  three  bundles  of 
skins.  At  the  close  of  the  conference,  on  the  fourtli  of  July 
1714,  the  Indians  gave,  in  their  order,  five  loud  cries ;  and  the 
English  agents,  after  a  health  to  the  king  of  England  and  the 
Six  Nations,  put  an  end  to  the  assembly  by  three  huzzas.  Great 
Britain  had  confiniied  its  claims  to  the  basin  of  the  Ohio,  and 
protected  its  northern  frontier. 

The  sense  of  danger  led  the  Pennsylvanians  for  the  first 
time  to  a  military  organization  effected  by  a  voluntary  system, 
under  the  influence  of  Franklin.  "  He  was  the  sole  author  of 
two  lotteries,  that  raised  above  six  thousand  pounds  to  pay  for 
the  charge  of  batteries  on  the  river  ; "  and  he  "  found  a  way 
to  put  the  country  on  raising  above  one  hundred  and  twenty 
companies  of  militia,  of  which  Philadelphia  raised  ten,  of 
about  a  hundred  men  eacL."  "  The  women  Avere  so  zealous 
that  they  furnished  ten  pairs  of  silk  colors,  Avrought  with  va- 
rious mottoes."  Of  the  Quakers,  many  admitted  the  propriety 
of  self-defence.  "I  principally  esteem  Benjamin  Franklin," 
wrote  Logan,  "for  saving  the  country  by  his  contriving  the 
militia.  He  was  the  prime  actor  in  all  this;"  and,  when 
elected  to  tlie  commjuid  of  a  regiment,  he  declined  the  difitinc- 


1744-1745.   WAR  BETWEEN  GEEAT  BRITAIN  AND  SPAIN.  305 

don,  and,  as  a  volunteer,  "himself  carried  a  musket  among  the 
common  soldiers." 

The  greatest  exploit  in  America  during  the  war  proceeded 
from  New  England.    On  the  surrender  of  Acadia  to  England,  the 
lakes,  the  rivulets,  the  grariite  ledges  of  Cape  Breton,  of  which 
the  irregular  outline  is  guarded  hy  reefs  of  rocks,  and  notched 
by  the  constant  action  of  the  sea,  were  immediately  occupied  as 
a  province  of  France;  and,  in  17U,  fugitives  from  Newfound- 
land and  Acadia  built  huts  along  its  coasts,  wherever  safe  iidets 
invited  fishermen  to  spread  their  flakes,  and  the  soil  to  plant 
fields  and  gardens.     In  1720,  the  fortifications  of  Louisburg 
began  to  rise,  the  key  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  bulwark  of  the 
Frti^ch  fisheries,  and  of  French  commerce  in  North  America 
From  Cape  Breton,  in  May  1744,  a  body  of  French,  before 
the  news  of  the  declaration  of  war  by  France  had  reached 
Xew  England,  surprised  the  little  Enghsh  garrison  at  Canso ; 
destioyed  the  fishery,  the  fort,  and  the  o+her  buildings  there ; 
and  removed  eighty  men,  as  prisoners  o:    wai-,  to  Louisburg.' 
The  fortifications  of  Annapolis,  the  only  remaining  defence  of 
Nova  Scotia,  were  in  a  state  of  niin.     An  attack  made  upon 
it  by  Indians  in  the  sei-vice  of  the  French,  accompanied  by 
Le  Loutre,  their  missionary,  was  with  difficulty  repelled.     The 
inhabitants  of  the  province,  from  twelve  to  sixteen  thousand, 
were  of  French  origin ;  and  a  revolt  of  the  people,  with  the  aid 
of  Indian  allies,  might  have  once  more  placed  France  in  pos- 
session of  it.     While  William  Shiriey,  the  governor  of  Massa- 
dnisetts,  foresaw  the  danger,  and  solicited  aid  from  England, 
the  officers  and  men  taken  at  Canso,  after  passing  the  summer 
in  captivity  at  Louisburg,  were  sent  to  Boston  on   parole. 
They  brought  accurate  accounts  of  the  condition  of  tliat  for- 
tress; and  Shirley  resolved  on  its  reducilon.     The  fishermen, 
especially  of  Marbleliead,  interrupted  in  their  pursuits  by  the 
war,  disdained  an  idle  summer,  and  entered  readily  into  the 
design.  ^   The  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  after  some  hesi- 
tation, in  January    1745,  resolved  on  the  experUtion  by   a 
majority  of  one  vote.     Solicited  to  render  assistance,  New 
loi-k  sent  a  small  supply  of  artillery,  and  Pennsylvania  of 
pro^nsions;    New  England   alone  furnished  men;   of  whom 
Connecticut  raised  five  hundred  and  sixteen;  New  Hampshire 

VOL.    II. — 20 


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306  BRITISn  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    part  hi.  ;  cu.  xvii. 

— to  whose  troops  "Wliitelield  gave,  as  Charles  "Wesley  had 
done  to  Oglethorpe,  the  motto,  "  Nothing  is  to  be  despaired 
of,  with  Christ  for  the  leader" — contributed  five  hundred; 
while  the  forces  levied  for  the  occasion  by  Massachusetts  ex- 
ceeded three  thousand  volunteers.  Three  hundred  men  sailed 
from  Rhode  Island,  but  too  late  for  active  service.  An  ex- 
press-boat recpiested  the  co-operation  of  Commodore  Warren 
at  Antigua,  with  such  ships  as  could  be  spared  from  the  lee- 
ward islands ;  but,  in  a  consultation  with  the  captains  of  his 
squadron,  it  uas  unanimously  resolved,  in  the  absence  of  di- 
rections from  England,  not  to  engage  in  the  scheme. 

Relying  on  themselves,  the  volunteers  of  Now  Hampshire 
and  Massachusetts,  with  a  merchant,  William  Pepperell,  of 
Maine,  for  their  chief  commander,  met  at  Canso.  The  in- 
ventive genius  of  New  England  was  active ;  one  proposed  a 
model  of  a  flying  bridge,  to  scale  the  walls  even  before  a 
breach  should  be  made ;  another,  who  was  a  minister,  pre- 
sented a  plan  for  encamping  the  army,  opening  trenches,  and 
placing  batteries.  Shirley,  wisest  of  all,  gave  instructions  for 
the  fleet  of  a  hundred  vessels  to  amve  together  at  a  precise 
hour ;  heedless  of  the  surf,  to  land  in  the  dark  on  the  rocky 
shore ;  to  march  forthwith,  through  thicket  and  bog,  to  the 
city,  and  beyond  it ;  and  to  take  the  fortress  and  royal  battery 
by  surprise  before  daybreak.  Such  was  the  confiding  spirit  at 
home.  The  expedition  itself  was  composed  of  fishermen,  who, 
with  prudent  forethought  took  with  them  their  cod-lines ;  of 
mechanics,  skilled  frc  .  childhood  in  the  use  of  the  gun ;  of 
lumberers,  inured  to  fatigue  and  encampments  in  the  woods ; 
of  husbandmen  from  the  interior,  who,  hunters  from  boyhood, 
had  groA\Ti  up  with  arms  in  their  hands ;  keenest  marksmen ; 
all  volunteers ;  all  commanded  by  officers  from  among  them- 
selves ;  many  of  them  church  members ;  almost  all  having 
wives  and  children.  On  the  first  Sal)bath,  "the  very  great 
company  of  people  "  came  together  on  shore,  to  hear  a  sermon 
on  enUsting  as  volunteers  in  the  service  of  the  Great  Captain 
of  our  salvation !  As  the  ice  of  Cape  Breton  was  drifting  in 
such  heaps  that  a  vessel  could  not  enter  its  harbors,  the  New 
England  fleet  was  detained  many  days  at  Canso,  when,  under 
a  clear  sky  and  a  bright  sun,  on  the  twenty-third  of  April, 


[II. ;  cu.  XVII. 


1745.        WAR  BETWEEN  GREAT  DRITAIX  AND  SPAIN.       307 

tlie  squadron  of  Commodore  Warren  happily  arrived.  Hardly 
had  iiis  coimcil  at  Antigua  declined  the  enterprise,  when  in- 
stnictions  from  England  bade  him  render  every  aid  to  Massa- 
chusetts ;  and,  learning  at  sea  the  embarkation  of  the  troops, 
lie  sailed  directly  to  Canso.  The  next  day  brought  nine  ves- 
sels from  Connecticut  with  the  forces  from  that  colony  in  high 
spirits  and  good  health. 

On  the  last  day  of  vVpril,  an  hour  after  sunrise,  the  arma- 
ment, in  a  hundred  vessels  of  ^ew  England,  entering  the  bay 
of  Chapeau  Rouge,  or  Gabanis,  as  the  EngHsh  called  it,  came 
in  sight  of  Louisburg.     Its  walls,  raised  on  a  neck  of  land  on 
the  south  side  of  the  harbor,  forty  feet  thick  at  the  base,  and 
from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  high,  all  within  swee])  of  the  bas- 
tio!is,  surrounded  by  a  ditch  eighty  feet  wide,  were  furnished 
with  one  hundred  and  one  cannon,  seventy-six  s\vivels,  and  six 
mortars.     The  harbor  was  defended  by  an  island  battery  of 
thirty  twenty-two  pounders,  and  by  the  royal  battery  on  the 
shore,  having  thirty  large  cannon,  a  moat  and  bastions,  all  so 
perfect  that  it  was  thought  two  hundred  men  could  have  de- 
fended it  against  live  thousand.     On  the  other  hand,  the  New 
England  forces  had  but  eighteen  cannon  and  three  mortars ; 
but  no  sooner  did  they  come  in  sight  of  the  city  than,  letting 
down  the  whale-boats,  "  they  flew  to  shore,  like  eagles  to  the 
qnarry.'"    The  French  that  cauie  down  to  prevent  the  landing 
were  put  to  flight,  and  driven  into  the  woods.     On  the  next 
day,  a  detachment  of  four  hundred  men,  led  by  Wilham 
Vaiighan,  a  volunteer  from  New  Hampshire,  marched  by  the 
city,  whicli  it  greeted  with  three  cheers,  and  took  post  near 
the  nortli-east  hari)or.     The  French  who  held  the  royal  bat- 
tery, struck  with  panic,  spiked  its  guns,  and  abandoned  it  in 
the  night.    In  the  morning,  boats  from  the  city  came  to  recover 
it;  but  Yaughan  and  thirteen  men,  standing  on  the  beach, 
kept  them  from  landing  till  a  re-enforcement  arrived.     To  a 
major  in  one  of  the  regiments  of  ]\rassachusetts,  Seth  Pome- 
roy,  from  Northampton,  a  gunsmith,  was  assigned  the  over- 
siglit  of  al)ovo  twenty  smiths  in  drilling  the  cannon,  which 
were  little  injm-ed ;  and  the  fire  from  the  city  and  the  island 
Imttery  was  soon  returned.     "  Louisburg,"  wrote  Pomeroy  to 
his  family,  -  is  au  exceedingly  strong  place,  and  seems  impreg- 


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308  BRITISH  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.    past  hi.  ;  cir.  xvn. 

liable.  It  looks  as  if  our  campaign  would  last  long ;  but  I  am 
willing  to  stay  till  God's  time  comes  to  deliver  the  city  into 
our  hands."  "  Suffer  no  anxious  thought  to  rest  in  your  mind 
about  me,"  replied  his  wife,  from  the  bosom  of  New  England. 
"  The  wdiole  town  is  much  engaged  with  concern  for  the  ex- 
pedition, how  Providence  will  order  the  affair,  for  which  relig- 
ious meetings  every  week  are  maintained.  I  leave  you  in  the 
hac:!  of  God." 

The  troops  made  a  jest  of  technical  military  terms ;  they 
laughed  at  proposals  for  zigzags  and  epaulements.  The  light 
of  nature,  however,  taught  them  to  erect  fascine  batteries  at  the 
west  and  south-west  of  the  city.  Of  these,  the  most  effective 
was  commanded  by  Tidcoml),  whose  readiness  to  engage  in  haz- 
ardous enteqirises  was  justly  applauded.  As  it  was  necessary, 
for  the  purposes  of  attack,  to  drag  the  cannon  over  l)Oggy 
morasses,  impassable  for  wheels,  Meserve,  a  New  Ilami^shire 
colonel  who  was  a  carpenter,  constructed  sledges ;  and  on  these 
the  men,  with  straps  over  their  shoulders,  sinking  to  their  knees 
in  mud,  drew  them  safely.  Tlie  siege  proceeded  in  a  ran- 
dom manner.  The  men  knew  little  of  strict  discipline ;  they 
had  no  fixed  encampment ;  their  lodgings  were  turf  and  brush 
houses;  their  bed  was  the  earth,  dangerous  resting-place  for 
those  "unacquainted  with  lying  in  the  woods."  Yet  the 
weather  was  fair;  and  the  atmosphere,  usually  thick  with 
palpable  fogs,  was  during  the  whole  time  singularly  dry.  All 
day  long,  the  men,  if  not  on  duty,  were  busy  -with  amuse- 
ments— firing  at  marks,  fishing,  fowling,  wrestling,  racing,  or 
nmning  after  balls  shot  from  the  enemy's  guns.  The  feeble- 
ness of  the  garrison,  which  had  only  six  hundred  regular  sol- 
diers, with  about  a  thousand  Breton  militia,  preveniod  sallies ; 
the  hunting-parties,  as  vigilant  for  the  trail  of  an  enemy  as  for 
game,  rendered  a  surprise  by  land  impr  osible ;  while  the  fieet 
of  Admiral  Warren  guarded  the  approaches  by  sea. 

Four  or  five  attempts  to  take  the  island  battery,  which 
commanded  the  entrance  to  th  lUirbor,  had  failed.  The  fail- 
ure is  talked  of  among  the  troops ;  a  party  of  volunteers,  after 
the  fashion  of  Indian  exiieditions,  under  a  chief  of  their  own 
election,  enlist  for  a  vigorous  attack  in  the  night  of  the  twenty- 
sixth  of  May ;  "'  but  now  Providence  seemed  remarkably  to 


II. ;  cii.  xvu. 


1745-1718.   WAR  BETWEEN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  SPAIN.   309 

frown  upon  tlie  affair."  The  assailants  are  discovered;  a  mur- 
derous iire  strikes  tlieir  boats  before  they  land ;  only  a  part  of 
tliein  reach  the  island ;  a  severe  contest  for  near  an  hour  en- 
sues ;  those  wlio  can  reacli  the  boats  escape,  with  the  loss  of 
sixty  killed  and  one  hundred  and  sixteen  taken  prisoners. 

To  annoy  the  island  battery,  the  Americans,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Gridley,  of  Boston,  erected  a  battery  near  the  north 
cape  of  the  harbor,  on  the  Light-house  cliff ;  and  within  two 
hundred  yards  of  the  city,  trenches  had  been  thrown  up  near 
an  advanced  post,  Avhich  with  guns  from  the  royal  battery 
played  upon  the  north-west  gate  of  Louisbum-. 

Still  no  breach  had  been  effected,  while  the  labors  of  the 
garrison  were  making  the  fortifications  stronger  than  ever. 
The  expedition  must  be  abandoned,  or  the  walls  of  the  city 
sealed.     Warren,  wlio  had  been  joined  by  several  ships-of- 
war  ordered  from  England  on  the  service,  agreed   to  sail 
into  the  harbor  and  bombard  the  city,  while  the  land  forces 
were  to  attempt  to  enter  it  by  storm.     But,  strong  as  were  the 
works,  the  garrison  was  discontented ;  and  Duchambon,  their 
commander,  igaorant  of  his  duties.     The  Vigilant,  a  French 
ship  of  sixty-four  guns,  laden  with  military  stores  for  his  sup- 
ply, had^  been  decoyed  by  Douglas,  of  the  Mermaid,  into 
the  English  fleet,  and,  after  an  engagement  of  some  hours,  had 
been  taken  in  sight  of  the  besieged  town.     The  desponding 
governor  sent  out  a  flag  of  truce ;  terms  of  capitulation  were 
accepted ;  on  the  seventeenth  of  June,  the  city,  the  fort,  the 
batteries,  were  surrendered ;  and  a  New  England  minister  soon 
preached  in  the  French  chapel.     As  the  troops,  marching  into 
the  place,  beheld  its  strength,  their  hearts  for  the  first  time 
sunk  within  them.     "  God  has  gone  out  of  the  way  of  his  com- 
mon providence,"  said  they,  "  in  a  remarkable  and  almost  mi- 
raculous manner,  to  incline  the  hearts  of  the  French  to  give 
up,  and  deliver  this  strong  city  into  our  hands."    AVhen,  on  the 
third  of  July,  the  news  reached  Boston,  the  bells  of  the  town 
were  rung  merrily,  and  all  the  people  were  in  transports  of 
joy.    The  strongest  fortress  of  North  America  capitulated  to 
New  England  mechanics  and  farmers  and  fishei-men.     It  was 
the  greatest  success  achieved  by  England  during  the  Avar. 
France  planned  the  recovery  of  Louisburg  and  the  desola- 


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310   HRITISII  AMERICA  FROM  1088  TO  1748.     i'.mjt  hi.;  cii.  xvn. 

tion  of  the  Englisli  colonies;  Init,  in  174(!,  its  largo  llect, 
wasted  hy  storms  and  sliipwreclvs  and  pestilential  disejise,  en 
feebled  by  the  snddt'ii  death  of  its  commander  and  Im  suc- 
cessor, attempted  nothing.  In  the  next  year,  the  French  tleet, 
Avith  troops  destined  for  (^mada  and  IVova  Scotia,  was  eneoui'- 
tered  i>y  Anson  and  Warren;  and  all  its  intrepidity  could  not 
save  it  from  striking  its  colors.  The  American  colonies  snllei-ed 
oidy  on  the  frontier.  Fort  l\rassachusetts,  the  post  nearest  to 
Crown  Point,  having  hut  twenty-two  men  for  its  garrison 
capitulated  to  a  large  body  of  French  and  Indians.  In  the 
wars  of  Queen  Anne,  Deerlield  antl  Haverhill  were  the  scenes 
of  massacre.  It  marks  the  i)rogress  of  settlements  that  danger 
was  transferred  from  them  to  Concord  on  the  ]\Ierrimaek,  and 
to  the  township  now  called  Charlestown  on  the  Connecticut. 

Repairing  to  Lonisburg,  Shirley,  with  AVarren,  had  con- 
certed a  project  for  reducing  all  ('anada;  and  the  duke  of 
Newcastle  rei)lied  to  Iheir  proposals  by  directing  preparations 
for  the  conquest.     The  colonies  north  of  Virginia  voted  to 
raise  more  than  eight  thousand  men ;  but  no  fleet  arrived  from 
England ;  and  the  French  were  not  even  driven  from  their 
posts  in  Nova  Scotia.     The  summer  of  the  next  year  passed  in 
that  inactivity  whicl,   ittends  the  expectation  of  peace  ;  and  in 
Septend)er  the  provincial  army,  by  direction  of  the  duke  of 
Newcastle,  was  disbanded.    "  There  is  reason  enough  for  doubt- 
ing whether  the  king,  if  he  had  the  power,  would  wish  to  drive 
the  French  from  their  possessions  in  Canada."    Such  was  pub- 
lic opinion  at  New  York,  in  174S,  as  preserved  for  us  by  the 
Swedish  traveller,  Peter  Kalm.    "  The  English  colonies  in  this 
part  of  the  world,"  he  continues,  "  have  in'jreased  so  much  in 
wealth  and  population  that  they  Avill  vie  mth  European  Eng- 
land.   But,  to  maintain  the  connnerce  and  the  power  of  the 
metropolis,  they  are  forbid  to  establisli  new  manufactures  which 
might  compete  with  the  English  ;  they  may  dig  for  gold  and 
silver  only  on  condition  of  shipping  them  innnediately  to  Eng- 
land; they  have,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  f^xed  places,  no 
liberty  to  trade  to  any  parts  not  belonging  to  the  English  do- 
minions ;  and  foreigners  are  not  allowed  the  least  commerce 
u-ith  these  American  colonies.     And  there  are  many  similar 
restrictions.     These  oppressions  have  made  the  inhabitants  of 


II. ;  oil.  xTii. 


1747-1748.   W.AU  BETWEEN  GREAT  BUITi\ 'N  AND  SPAIN.  311 

the  Kiififlish  colcniea  less  tender  toward  tlioir  iiiother  land. 
TluB  coldness  is  increased  by  the  many  foreigners  who  are  set- 
tled among  them;  for  Dntch,  (Tcrmans,  and  French  are  hero 
blended  with  English,  and  have  no  special  love  for  Old  Eng- 
land. JJesides,  some  people  are  always  discontented,  and  love 
cluinge;  and  exceeding  freedom  and  prosperity  nurse  an  un- 
tiinuihle  spirit.  I  have  been  told,  not  only  by  native  Ameri- 
cans, but  by  English  emigrants,  i)iiblicly,  that  within  thirty  or 
tifty  years  the  English  colonies  in  ^orth  America  may  consti- 
tute a  separate  state,  entirely  independent  of  England.  But, 
as  this  whole  country  is  toward  the  sea  unguarded,  and  on  the 
frontier  is  kept  uneasy  by  the  French,  these  dangerous  neigh- 
bors are  the  reason  why  the  love  of  these  colonies  for  their  me- 
tropolis does  not  utterly  decline.  The  English  government  has 
therefore  reason  to  regard  the  French  in  North  America  as  the 
chief  power  that  urges  their  colonies  to  submission." 

The  Swede  heard  but  the  truth,  though  that  trutli  lay  con- 
cealed from  British  statesmen.  Even  during  the  war,  the  spirit 
of  resistance  to  tyranny  was  kindled  int(j  a  fury  at  Boston.  Sir 
Charles  Knowles,  the  British  naval  commander,  wliom  Smollet 
is  thought  to  have  described  justly  as  "an  officer  without  reso- 
lution, and  a  man  without  veracity,"  having  been  deserted  by 
some  of  his  crew,  while  lying  oil  Nantasket,  early  one  morning, 
iu  November  174:7,  sent  his  boats  up  to  Boston,  and  impressed 
seamen  fi-om  vessels,  mechanics  and  laborers  from  the  wharfs. 
"  Such  a  surprise  could  not  be  borne  here,"  Avrote  Hutchinson. 
"Men  would  not  be  contented  with  fail*  promises  from  the 
"  the  seizure  of  the  commanders  and  other  ofHcers 


governor ; 


who  were  in  to\vn  was  insisted  upon,  as  the  only  effectual 
method  to  procure  the  release  of  the  inhabitants  aboard  the 
ships.''  And  the  mob  executed  what  the  governor  declined 
to  do.  After  three  days  of  rage  and  resentment,  through  the 
mediation  of  the  house  of  representatives,  order  was  restored. 
The  officers  were  released  from  their  irregular  imprisonment ; 
and  the  impressed  citizens  of  Boston  were  set  free. 

The  alliance  of  Austria  with  Russia  hastened  negotiations 
for  the  pacification  of  Europe ;  and  in  1748  a  congress  convened 
at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  to  restore  tranquillity  to  the  civilized  world. 
Between  England  and  Spain,  and  between  France  and  Eug- 


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1      % 


812  BPJTIHII  AMERICA  FROM  1688  TO  1748.     pautiii.;  cu.  xvn. 

land,  after  oi;,^Iit  years  of  reciprocal  ainioyanco,  after  an  im- 
mense accnnuilution  of  national  debt,  the  condition  of  ])eii(.o 
was  a  retnrn  to  the  state  before  the  war.     Ilnnumity  had  Buf- 
fered, without  a  purpose  and  witliout  a  result.     In  the  colo- 
nial world,  Afadras  was  restored  for  Louisbur<?;  the  botnida- 
ries  between  tlie  JJritish  and  the  French  jjrovinces  in  America 
were  left  unsettled;  the  frontier  of  Fl<,rida  was  not  traced. 
Neither  did  Spain  reliiupiish  the  right  of  searching  English 
vessels  suspected  of  smuggling;   and,  though  it  was  agreed 
that  the  assiento  treaty  should  continue  for  four  years  more 
the  right  was  soon  abandoned,  under  a  new  convention,  for  an 
inconsiderable  pecuniary  indenniity.     The   ]n-incii)le  of  the 
freedom  of  the  seas  Avas  asserted  only  by  Frederic  11.    Hol- 
land, remaining  neutral  as  long  as  possible,  claimed,  under 
the  treaty  of  1(!74,  freedom  of  goods  for  her  feliips ;  but  Eng- 
land, disregarding  the  treaty,  captured  and  condenmed  her  ves- 
sels.    On  occasion  of  the  Avar  between  Sweden  and  Kussia, 
the  principle  was  again  urged  by  the  Dt.tch,  and  again  re- 
jected by  the  Swedes.     Even  Prussian  shins  were  seized ;  but 
the  king  of  Prussia  indemnified  the  sufferers  by  reprisals  on 
English  property.     Of  higher  questions,  in  which  the  interests 
of  civilization  were  involved,  not  one  was  adjusted.     To  the 
balance  of  power,  sustained  by  standing  armies  of  a  million  of 
men,  the  statesmen  of  that  day  intrusted  the  preservation  of 
tranquillity,  and,  ignorant  of  the  miglit  of  principles  to  moui: 
the  relations  of  states,  saw  in  Austria  the  certain  ally  of  Eu"-- 
land,  in  France  the  natural  ally  of  Prussia. 

Thus,  after  long  years  of  strife,  of  repose,  and  of  strife  re- 
newed, England  and  France  solemnly  agreed  to  be  at  peace. 
The  treaties  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  had  been  negotiated  by  the 
ablest  statesmen  of  Europe,  in  the  f'^rms  of  monarchical  diplo- 
macy. They  believed  themselves  the  arbiters  of  mankind,  the 
pacificators  of  the  M^orld ;  reconstructing  the  colonial  system 
on  a  basis  wh'ch  should  endure  for  ages,  and  confirming  the 
peace  of  Europe  by  the  nice  adjustment  of  material  forces. 
At  the  very  time  of  the  congress  of  Aix-Ia-Chapelle,  the  woods 
of  Virginia  sheltered  the  youtiiful  George  Washington,  who 
had  been  bom  by  the  side  of  the  Potomac,  beneath  the  roof 
of  a  Westmoreland  planter,  and  whose  lot  almost  from  infancy 


Hi 


""•;  cir.  xvii. 


UiH.        WAR  BETWEEN  GREAT  BRITALV  AND  SPAIN.       313 

had  boon  that  of  an  orphan.     Xo  academy  had  welcomed  him 
to  its  HJiadoH,  no  college  crowned  him  with  its  honors  ;  to  read, 
to  write,  to  cipher — those  had  l)eon  his  degrees  in  knowledge. 
Xnd  now,  at  sixtocu  years  of  ago,  in  qnest  of  an  lionest  main- 
tenaneo  encountering  the  sevorost  toil;    cheered  onward  by 
l)eing  able  to  write  to  a  schoolboy  friend,  "Dear  Richard,  a 
doiildoon  is  tny  constant  gain  every  day,  and  sometimes  six 
pistoles;"  '4ilmself  his  (jwn  cook,  having  no  spit  but  a  forked 
•stick,  no  plate  but  a  large  chip;"  roaming  over  spurs  of  the 
AUeglianies,  and  along  the  banks  of  the  Shenandoah ;  alive  to 
nature,  and  sometimes  "spending  the  host  of  the  day  in  ad- 
miring the  trees  and  richness  of  the  land;"  among  skin-clad 
savages  with  their  scalps  and  rattles,  or  uncouth  emigrants 
"  that  would  never  speak  English  ; "  rarely  sleeping  in  a  bed ; 
holding  a  bear-skin  a  splendid  couch;    glad   of  a   resting- 
place  for  the  night  upon  a  little  hay,  straw,  or  fodder,  and 
often  camping  in  the  forests,  where  the  place  nearest  the  tiro 
\vas  a  hiii)py  luxury — this  stripling  surveyor  in  the  woods,  Avith 
no  companion  l)ut  his  unlettered  associates,  and  no  implements 
of  science  but  his  compass  and  chain,  contrasted  strangely  Avith 
the  imperial  magnificence  of  the  congress  of  7\  ix-la-Chapelle. 
And  yet  God  had  selec'-ed,  not  Kaunitz  nor  Newcastle,  not  a 
monarch  of  the  house  of  Ilapsburg  nor  of  Hanover,  but  the 
Virginia  stripling,  to  give  an  impulse  to  human  affairs ;  and, 
as  far  as  events  can  depend  on  an  individual,  had  placed  the 
nghts  and  the  destinies  of  countless  millions  in  the  keeping  of 
the  widow's  son. 


1 

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END  OF   THE   HISTORY   OF   THE  COLONIZATION 
OF   THE   UNITED    STATES. 


1 1  ijii 


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HISTORY 

OF  TUB 

UNITED  STilTES  OF  .AMERICA. 


THE 

AMERICAN  REVOLUTIOX 

IN  FIVE  EPOCHS. 

I.-BPvITAIN    OVERTHROWS    THE     EUROPEAN    COLONIAL 
SYSTEM. 

n.— BRITAIN  ESTRANGES  AlIERICA. 

HI.— AMERICA  TAKES  UP   ARMS  FOR  INDEPENDENCE. 

IV.— AMERICA  IN  ALLIANCE  WITH   FRANCE. 

V.-AMERICA  RECEIVED  TO  AN  EQUAL  STATION    AMONG 
THE  POWERS  OF  THE  EARTH. 


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THE 


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AMERICAN   REVOLUTION 


IN  FIVE  EPOCHS. 


EPOCH  FIRST. 


BRITAIN  OVERTHROWS  THE  EUROPEAN  COLONIAL 

SYSTEM. 

From  1748  to  1763. 


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THE  OYEETIIROW 


OF   THE 


EUROPEAN  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


CHAPTER  I. 

imERICA   CLAIMS   LEGISLATIVE  INDEPENDENCE   OF   ENGLAND. 
IIENEY   TELIIAm's   ADMINISTRATION. 

1748. 

In  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
forty-eight,  Montesquieu,  wisest  in  his  age  of  the  reflecting 
statesmen  of  France,  apprises  the  cultivated  worid  that  Entv. 
laud  has  founded  distant  colonies  more  to  extend  her  com- 
merce than  her  sovereignty ;  and  "  as  we  love  to  establish  else- 
where that  which  we  And  established  at  home,  she  Avill  give  to 
the  people  of  her  colonies  the  form  of  her  own  government, 
and  this  government  carrying  with  itself  prosperity,  a  great 
people  will  foi-m  itself  in  the  forests  that  she  sent  them  forth 
to  iuhal)it."  The  hereditary  dynasties  of  Europe,  all  unconscious 
of  the  rapid  growth  of  the  power  of  the  people,  which  wa;.  .uon 
to  l)ring  them  under  its  new  and  prevailing  influence,  were 
negotiating  treaties  among  themselves  to  close  their  wars  of 
personal  ambition.  The  great  maritime  powers,  weary  of  hopes 
of  conquest,  desired  repose.  To  restore  possessions  as  they  had 
been,  or  were  to  have  been,  was  accepted  as  the  condition  of 
peace ;  and  guarantees  were  devised  to  keep  them  safe  against 
vicissitude.  JlJut  the  eternal  flow  of  existence  never  rests,  bear- 
ing the  human  race  onward  through  continuous  change.  Prin- 
ciples grow  into  life  in  the  public  mind,  and,  following  each 
other  as  they  are  bidden  and  without  a  pause,  gain  the  mas- 


o 


'<  i 


li' 


1520       OVEliTIIROAV  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM.     ei'.  i. 


OH.  I. 


tery  over  events.  No  sooner  do  the  iii^itated  waves  begin  to 
fiuhsido  tliiui,  amid  the  formless  toHsiii<r  of  tiie  billows,  a  new 
messeii<,'er  from  tlu'  Inlinite  iSj)irit  moves  over  the  waters; 
and  the  l.ai-k  which  is  frei-hted  with  the  fortnnes  of  man- 
kind yiehls  to  its  l)rt'ath  as  it  lii-st  whispers  amon_<r  the  shrouds, 
oven  while  the  beholders  still  doubt  if  the  breeze  is  spriu-- 
in<jf,  and  wher.ce  it  comes,  and  whither  it  will  «?o. 

The  hour  of  revolution  was  at  hand,  promising  freedom  to 
eonscii'iice  and  dominion  to  intelligence.  History,  escaping 
from  the  dictates  of  authority  and  the  jars  of  insulated  iutei^ 
ests,  enters  upon  new  and  un*hought-(')f  <h)mains  of  culture 
and  ('(jualitv,  the  hapi)ier  society  where  powei-  s[)rings  fresliiy 
from  ever-reiH'wed  consent;  the  lifj  and  activity  of  a  con- 
nected world. 

For  Kuropc',  the  crisis  foreboded  the  struggles  of  genera- 
tions. The  faith  aiul  all'ection  which  once  bound  together 
the  separate  classes  of  its  civil  hierarchy  had  lost  their""vigor. 
In  the  impending  chaos  of  states,  the' ancient  forms  of  so- 
ciety, after  convulsi\e  agonies,  were  doomed  to  be  broken  in 
l)ieces.  ^  The  v.. ice  of  reform,  as  it  i)asscd  over  tlie  desolation, 
would  inspire  animation  afresh ;  bui  conllict  of  the  classes 
whose  power  was  crushed  with  the  oi)pressed  who  know  not 
that  they  were  redeemed,  might  awaken  wild  and  insatiable 
desires.  In  America,  the  inlluoncos  of  time  were  moulded  hy 
the  creative  force  of  reason,  sentiment,  and  nature;  its  polit- 
ical odilico  rose  in  lovely  i>roportions,  tus  if  to  the  melodies  of 
the  lyre.  Calndy,  and  without  crime,  humanity  v/as  to  make 
lor  itself  a  new  existence. 

A  few  men  of  Anglo-Saxon  descent,  scholai-s,  farmers,  plant- 
ers, ami  mechanics,  with  their  wives  and  children,  had  cn.ssed 
the  Atlantic,  in  search  of  freedom  and  fortune.  They  brought 
the  civilization  which  the  past  had  bequeathed  to  Great  Brit- 
ain ;  they  were  followed  by  the  slave-ship  and  the  Africuii; 
tiieir  prosperity  iin-itcd  enugrants  from  every  nationalitv  of 
central  and  western  Europe ;  the  mercantile  system  to  which 
they  were  subjected  i)revailed  in  the  councils  of  all  metropoli- 
tan states,  and  extended  its  restrictions  to  every  conthient  that 
allured  to  couipiest,  commerce,  or  colonization.  The  accom- 
plishment of  th.>ir  iudenenden'.v  would  assert  tlie  freedom  of 


1718.  AMERICA  CLAIMS  LEGISLATIVE  INDEPENDENCE.    321 

the  oceans  as  commercial  liiglnvays,  and  vindicate  power  in  the 
couinionwealth  for  tlio  solf-directin^r  judgment  of  its  people. 

The  authors  of  the  American  revolution  avowed  for  their 
object  tlie  welfare  of  mankind,  and  believed  that  they  were  in 
the  service  of  their  own  and  of  all  future  generations.     Their 
faith  was  just ;  for  the  world  of  mankind  does  not  exist  in 
fragments,  nor  can  a  country  have  an  insulated  existence.    All 
men  are  brothers;  and  all  ai-o  l)on(lsmen  i'or  one  another.    All 
nations,  too,  are  brothers ;  and  each  is  responsible  for  that  fed- 
erative humanity  which  puts  the  ban  of  exclusion  on  none. 
New  prin(!ipk>s  of  government  could  not  assert  themselves  in 
one  henii.si)liere  without  aifecting  the  other.     The  very  idea 
of  the  progress  of  an  individual  people,  in  its  relation  to  uni- 
versal histoi-y,  si)rings  from  the  acknowledged  unity  of  the  race. 
Vrum  the  dawn  of  social  being  there  has  appeared  a  ten- 
dency toward  connnerce   and  intercourse   between  the  scat- 
tered inhal>itants   of  the   earth.     That  mankind  have   ever 
earnestly  desired  this  connection  appears  from  their  willing 
liouiage  to  the  adventurer,  and  to  every  peoi)le  who  greatly 
enlarge  the  boundaries  of  the  Avorld,  as  known  to  civilization. 
The  traditions  of  remotest  anti(pnty  celebrate  the  half-divine 
wanderer  who  raised  piUars  on  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic ;  and 
record,  as  a  visitant  from  the  skies,  the  first  traveller  from 
Europe  to  the  rivers  of  India.     Tt  is  the  glory  of  Greece  that, 
when  she  had  gathered  on  her  islands  and  among  her  hills  the 
scattered  beams  of  human  intelligence,  her  numerous  colonies 
carried  the  accumulated  light  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  ocean 
and  to  the  shores  of  the  Euxine ;  her  wisdom  and  her  aims 
coiuieded  continents. 

AVhen  ei\ilization  intrenched  herself  within  the  beautiful 
promontory  cf  Italy,  and  Kome  led  the  van  of  European  re- 
form, the  same  movement  continued,  with  still  vaster  results; 
for,  thougli  the  military  republic  gave  dominion  to  property, 
and  extended  her  own  influence  by  the  sword,  yet,  heaping  up 
con(iuests,  adding  island  to  continent,  absorbing  nationalities, 
oll'ering  a  shrine  to  strange  gods,  and  citizenship  to  every  van- 
quished people,  she  exteiuled  over  a  larger  emi)ire  the  benefits 
of  fixed  i)rinciples  of  law,  and  prepared  the  way  for  a  univer- 


sal rel 


'ciiu'ion. 


VOL.  n.— 21 


I  I 


Xi 


I    !:^ 


a  W 


'     1 

I 


322       OVERTHROW  OF  TBE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


EP.  I. ;  oil.  I. 


!":  ■■!: 


■T!   "  \ 


To  have  as.serted  clearly  the  unity  of  mankind  was  the  dis- 
tinctive character  of  the  Christiiin  religion.  No  more  were  the 
nations  to  be  severed  by  the  worship  of  exclusive  deities.  TJiey 
were  taught  that  all  men  are  of  one  blood ;  that  for  all  there  is 
but  one  divine  nature  and  but  one  moral  law  ;  and  the  renovat- 
ing faith  which  made  kno^v^l  the  singleness  of  the  race,  em- 
bodied its  aspirations,  and  guided  its  advancement.  The  tribes 
of  Northern  Europe,  emerging  freshly  from  tlie  wild  nurseries 
of  nations,  opened  new  regions  to  culture,  conmierce,  and  re- 
finement. The  beams  of  the  majestic  temple,  which  antiquity 
had  reared  to  its  many  gods,  wcn-e  already  falling  in ;  roviug 
invaders,  talcing  to  their  hearts  the  regenerating  creed,  became 
its  intrepid  messengers,  and  bore  its  symbols  even  to  Iceland 
and  Siberia. 

Still  nearer  was  the  period  of  the  connected  world,  when 
an  enthusiast  refci-mer,  glowing  with  selfish  ambition  and 
angry  at  the  hollow  forms  of  idolatry,  rose  up  in  the  deserts 
of  Arabia,  and  founded  a  system  of  social  equality  dependent 
neither  on  birth  nor  race  nor  country.  Its  emissaries,  never 
diverging  widely  from  the  warmer  zone,  conducted  armies 
from  Mecca  to  the  Ganges,  where  its  principle  proclaimed  the 
abrogation  of  castes ;  and  to  the  Ebro,  where  it  mocked  at  the 
worship  of  images  and  the  superstitions  supported  by  appeals 
to  the  senses.  How  did  the  two  systems  animate  all  the  con- 
tinents of  the  Old  World  to  combat  for  the  sepulchre  of 
Christ,  till  Europe,  from  Spain  to  Scandinavia,  came  into  con- 
flict and  intercourse  ^vith  the  arts  as  well  as  the  arms  of  the 
South  and  East,  from  Aforocco  to  Ilindostan,  leaving  the  victory 
to  the  religion  which  intei-posed  no  indestructible  wall  of  sep- 
aration between  men  of  differing  -eligious  persuasions ! 

In  due  time  appeared  the  mariner  from  Genoa.  To  Colum- 
bus God  gave  the  keys  that  unlock  the  barriers  of  the  ocean ; 
so  that  he  filled  Christendom  with  his  glory.  As  he  went 
forth  towai-d  the  West,  ])loughing  a  wave  \v'hich  no  European 
keel  had  entered,  it  was  his  high  purpose  not  merely  to  open 
new  paths  to  islands  or  to  continents,  but  to  bring  together 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  join  all  nations  in  commerce  and 
spiritual  life. 

While  tho  world  of  mankind  is  accomDlishing  its  nearer 


1718.  AMERICA  CLAIMS  LEGISLATIVE   INDEPENDENCE.    323 

connection,  it  is  advancing  in  the  power  of  its  intelligence. 
The  possession  of  reason  is  the  engagement  for  that  progress 
of  which  history  keeps  the  record.     The  faculties  of  each  ii- 
(liviaual  mind  are  limited  in  their  development ;  the  reason 
of  the  whole  strives  for  perfection,  has  been  restlessly  forming 
itself   from  the  iii-st  moment  of  human  existence,  and  has 
never  met  bounds  to  its  capacity  for  improvement.     The  gen- 
erations of  men  are  not  like  tlie  leaves  on  the  trees,  which  fall 
and  renew  themselves  without  melioration  or  change;  indi- 
viduals disappear  like  the  foliage  and  the  flowers ;    the  ex- 
istence of  our  kind  is  continuous,  and  its  ages  are  reciprocally 
dependent.     Were  it  not  so,  there  would  be  no  great  truths 
inspiring  action,  no  laws  regulating  human  achievements :  the 
movement  of  the  living  world  would  be  as  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  the  ocean ;  and  the  mind  would  no  n    .e  be  touched  by  the 
visible  agency  of  Providence  in  hunum  affairs.     In  the  lower 
creation,  instinct  may  more  nearly  be  always  equal  to  itself  ; 
yet  even  there  the  beaver  builds  his  hut,  the  bee  his  cell,  with 
a  gi-adual  acquisition  of  inherited  thought  and  increase  of  skill. 
By  a  more  marked  prerogative,  as  Pascal  has  written,  "not 
only  each  man  advances  diuly  in  the  sciences,  but  all  men 
unitedly  make  a  never  ceasing  progress  in  them,  as  the  uni- 
verse grows  older ;  so  that  the  whole  succession  of  human  be- 
ings, during  the  comvse  of  so  many  ages,  ought  to  be  considered 
as  one  identical  man,  who  subsists  always,  and  who  learns  with- 
out end." 

It  is  this  idea  of  continuity  which  gives  vitality  to  history. 
No  period  of  time  has  a  separate  being ;  no  public  opinion  can 
escape  the  influence  of  previous  intelligence.  We  are  cheered 
by  rays  from  fonnjr  centuries,  and  live  in  the  sunny  reflection 
of  all  their  light.  What  though  thought  is  invisible,  and,  even 
when  elfective,  seems  as  transient  as  the  wind  that  drives  the 
cloud !  It  is  yet  free  and  indestructible ;  can  as  little  be  bound 
in  chains  as  the  aspiring  flame ;  and,  when  once  generated, 
takes  eternity  for  its  guardian.  We  are  the  children  and  the 
heirs  of  the  past,  with  wliich,  as  with  the  future,  we  are  indis- 
solubly  linked  together ;  and  he  that  tmly  has  sympathy  with 
everything  belonging  to  man  will,  with  his  toils  for  posterity, 
hiend  allcction  for  the  times  that  are  jrone 


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321   OVERTHROW  OF  TDE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


EP.  I.;    (!n.  I, 


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in  the  life  of  the  ages.  It  is  by  thanlcfiilly  recognising  thoso 
ages  as  a  part  of  tlie  great  existence  in  which  we  share  that 
history  wins  power  to  move  the  soul ;  she  conies  to  us  with 
tidings  of  that  which  for  us  still  lives,  of  that  which  has  be- 
coihl;  the  life  of  our  Ufe  ;  she  eiubahns  and  preserves  for  us  the 
life-blood  not  of  master-spirits  only,  but  of  generations. 

And  because  the  idea  of  improvement  belongs  to  that  of 
continuous  being,  history  is,  of  all  pursuits,  the  most  cheeriug; 
it  throws  a  halo  of  delight  and  hope  even  over  the  sorrows  of 
humanity,  and  finds  promises  of  joy  among  the  ruins  of  em- 
pires and  the  graves  of  nations  ;  it  sees  the  footsteps  of  Provi- 
dential Intelligence  everywhere,  and  hears  the  geutlc!  tones  of 
its  voice  in  the  hour  of  tranquillity. 

Nor  God  alone  in  the  still  calm  we  find ; 
He  mounts  the  storm  and  M^alks  upon  the  wind. 
Institutions  may  cruml)le  and  governments  fall,  but  it  is  only 
that  they  may  renew  a  better  youth.  The  i)etals  of  the  flower 
wither,  that  fruit  may  form.  The  desire  of  perfection,  spring- 
ing always  from  moral  power,  i-ules  even  the  sword,  and  escapes 
unbanned  from  the  field  of  carnage ;  giving  to  battles  all  that 
they  can  have  of  lustre,  and  to  A\'aiTiors  their  only  glory ;  sur- 
viving nuxrtyrdoms,  and  safe  amid  the  wreck  of  states.  On  the 
banks  of  the  btream  of  time,  not  a  monument  has  been  raised 
to  a  hero  or  a  nation  but  tells  tlie  tale  and  renews  the  hope  of 
improvement.  Each  people  that  has  disappeared,  every  insti- 
tution that  has  passed  away,  has  been  a  step  in  the  ladder  by 
which  humanity  ascends  toward  the  perfecting  of  its  nature. 

And  Ik.w  has  it  always  added  to  the  just  judgments  of  the 
past  the  discoveries  of  successive  ages !  The  generations  that 
liand  the  torch  of  truth  along  the  lines  of  time  themselves  be- 
come dust  and  ashes ;  but  the  light  still  increases  its  ever  bm-u- 
mg  flame,  and  is  fed  more  and  more  plenteously  with  conse- 
c.-ated  oil.  How  is  progress  manifest  in  religion,  from  the 
gross  symbols  of  Eg}q)t  and  the  East  to  the  i)liilosophy  of 
Greece,  from  the  fetichism  of  the  savage  to  the  pol^iheism  of 
Rome ;  from  the  multiplied  fonns  of  ancient  superstition  and 
the  lovely  representations  of  deities  in  stone,  to  the  clear  con- 
ception of  the  unity  of  divine  power  and  the  idea  of  the 
presence  of  God  in  the  soul !    How  has  mind,  in  its  iuciulsltlvc 


;ll[: 


1748.  AMERICA  CLAIMS  LEGISLATIVE   INDEPENDENCE.    325 

frct'dom,  tanght  inn.n  to  employ  tlie  eleinontfi  as  mechanics  do 
tlieir  tools,  and  already,  in  part  at  least,  made  him  the  mastc- 
and  possessor  of  nature!  How  has  knowledge  not  only  heen 
increased,  but  dilFused !  How  has  morality  been  constantly 
tcMiding  to  subdue  the  supremacy  of  bnite  force,  to  rehne  pas- 
sion, to  enrich  literature  with  the  varied  forms  of  pure  thou.dit 
and  delicate  feeling  !  II„w  has  social  life  been  improved,  and 
every  variety  of  toil  in  the  field  and  in  the  workshop  been 
ennoI)Ied  by  the  willing  industry  of  free  men !  How  has  hu- 
manity been  growing  conscious  of  its  unity  and  watchful  of 
its  own  development,  till  public  opinion,  bursting  the  bonds  of 
nationality,  knows  itself  to  be  the  combined  intcHigcnce  of  the 
wdi-ld,  in  its  movement  on  the  tide  of  thought  from  genera- 
tion to  generation ! 

From  the  intelligence  that  had  been  slowly  ripening  in  the 
miml  of  cultivated  hunumity  sprung  the  American  revolution, 
which   organized   social   union  through  the  establishment  of 
personal  freedom,  and  emancipated  the  nations  from  all  author- 
ity not  fiowing  from  themselves.     In  the  old  civilization  of 
Europe,  power  moved  from  a  superior  to  inferiors  and  sub- 
jects ;  a  priesthood  transmitted  a  common  faith,  from  which  it 
would  tolerate  no  dissent ;  the  government  esteemed  itself,  by 
compact  or  by  divine  right,  invested  with  sovereignty,  dispens- 
ing protection  and  demanding  allegiance.    But  a  new  i)rinciple, 
far  mightier  than  the  church  and  state  of  the  middle  ages,' 
was  forcing  itself  into  activity.     Successions  of  increasing  cul- 
ture had  conquered  for  mankind  the  idea  of  the  freedom  of  the 
individual ;  the  creative,  but  long  latent,  energy  that  resides 
in  the  collective  reason  was  next  to  be  revealed.     From  this 
tlie  state  ^vas  to  emerge,  like  the  fabled  spirit  of  beauty  and 
love  out  of  the  foam  of  the  ever  troubled  ocean.     It  was  the 
office  of  America  to  substitute  for  hereditary  privilege  the 
natural  ecpiality  of  man ;  for  the  irresponsible  authority  of  a 
sovereigTi,  a  government  emanating  from  the  concord  of  opin- 
ion ;  and,  as  she  moved  forward  in  her  high  career,  the  multi- 
tudes of  every  clime  gazed  toward  her  example  with  hopes  of 
untold  hai)piness,  and  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  learned  the 
way  to  be  renewed. 

The  American  revolution,  essaying  to  unfold  the  principles 


T^ 

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320       OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


KP.  I. ;  en,  I, 


wliicli   organized  its  evontw,  iiiid  Ixtimd   to   keep   faith   with 
the  iislies  of  its  heroes,  was  most  radical  in  its  character,  yet 
achieved  with  such  benign  tranquillity  that  even  conservatism 
hesitated  to  censure.     A  civil  war  armed  men  of  the  same  an- 
cestry against  each  other,  yet  for  the  advancement  of  the  i)rii!- 
ciples  of  everlasting  peace  and  universal  brotherhood,    A  new 
plebeian  democracy  took  its  place  by  the  side  of  the  proudest 
empires.     Religion  was  disenthralled  from  civil  institutions* 
thought  obtained  for  itself  free  utterance  by  speech  and  by 
the  press  ;  industry  was  conunissioned  to  follow  the  bent  of 
its  own  genius ;  the  system  of  commercial  restrictions  l)etween 
states  was  reprobated  and  sliattered ;  and  the  oceans  were  en- 
franchised  for  every  peaceful  keel.     International  law  was 
humanized  and  softened;  and  a  new,  milder,  and  more  just 
niai'itime  code  was  concerted  and  enforced.    The  trade  in  slaves 
was  branded  and  restrained.     The  language  of  Iiaeon  and  Wil- 
ton, of  Chatham  and  "Washington,  became  so  diffused  that,  in 
every  zone,  and  almost  in  every  longitude,  childhood  lisps  the 
English  as  its  mother  tongue.    The  ecpiality  of  all  met\  was  de- 
clared, personal  freedom  secured  in  its  complete  individnahty, 
and  common  consent  recognised  as  the  only  just  origin  of 
fundamental  laws:  so  that  in  thirteen  separate  states,  with 
ample  territorv  for  creating  more,  the   iniiabitants  of  eaeli 
formed  their  own  i)olitical  institutions.     By  the  side  of  the 
principle  of  the  freedom  of  the  individual  and  the  freedom  of 
the  separate  states,  the  noblest  work  of  human  intellect  was 
consummated  in  a  federal  union ;  and  that  uiuon  ])ut  away 
every  motive  to  its  destruction  by  insuring  to  each  successive 
generation  the  right  to  amend  its  constitution  according  to 
the  increasing  intelligence  of  the  living  peojde. 

Astonishing  deeds,  throughout  the  globe,  attended  these 
changes :  amiies  fought  in  the  wilderness  for  nile  over  the  soli- 
tudes which  were  to  l)e  the  future  dwelling-place  of  millions ; 
iiiivies  hunted  each  other  through  every  sea,  engaging  in  battle 
now  near  the  region  of  icebergs,  row  within  the  tropics; 
inventive  art  was  summoned  to  mnko  war  more  destructive, 
and  to  signalize  sieges  by  new  miracles  of  ability  and  daring; 
Africa  Avas,  in  part,  ap])ropriated  by  ri\-al  nations  of  white 
men ;  and,  in  Asia,  an  adventurous  conipany  of  British  trad- 


1748.  AMERICA  CLAIMS  LEGISLATIVE  INDEPENDENCE.    327 
ors  i)Iantc'd  themselves  an  masters  in  the  empire  of  the  Great 

I'or  America,  the  period  silmunded  in  new  foniis  of  virtue 
and  j,'reutne88.  Fidehty  to  principle  pervaded  the  nmses  ;  an 
uiK.rjriUuzed  people,  of  their  own  free  will,  HUrtpended  com- 
laerce  by  umvensal  lussent ;  i)overty  rejected  Iii-ihes.  Heroism, 
greater  than  that  of  chivalry,  l.nrst  into  action  from  lowly  men  \ 
citiiiens,  with  their  families,  fled  from  their  homes  and  wealth' 
iu  tumis,  rather  than  yield  to  oppression.  Battalions  sprung 
up  in  a  night  from  spontaneous  patriotism ;  where  eminent 
stiitesMien  hesitated,  liie  instinctive  actiorj  of  the  multitude  re- 
vealed the  counsels  of  magnaninuty ;  youth  and  genius  gave 
up  life  freely  for  the  liberties  of  mankind.  A  nation  without 
union,  without  magazines  and  arsenals,  without  a  treasury,  with- 
out credit,  without  government,  fought  successfully  against  the 
wlmlo  strength  and  wealth  of  Great  JJritain:  an  army  of  vet- 
(.ran  soldiers  capitulated  to  insurgent  husbandmen. 

Europe  could  not  Avatch  with  uidiffereuce  the  spectacle. 
The  oldest  aristocracy  of  France,  the  i)roudest  nobles  of  Poland, 
the  bravest  hearts  of  Germany,  sent  their  rei)resentatives  to  act 
Its  the  peers  of  ])lebeians,  to  die  gloriously,  or  to  live  beloved, 
!i.^  tlie  champions  of  humanity  and  freedom ;  Tuissia  and  the 
northern  nations  shielded  the  young  rei)ublic  by  an  anred 
neutrality  ;  while  the  Catholic  and  feudal  monarchies  of  France 
and  Spain,  children  of  the  nuddle  age,  were  wonderfully 
swayed  to  open  the  gates  of  futurity  to  the  new  empire  of 
democracy :  so  that,  in  human  affairs,'God  never  showed  more 
visibly  his  gracious  providence  and  love. 

The  thirteen  colonies,  in  which  was  involved  the  freedom 
of  our  race,  were  feeble  settlements  in  the  wildcniess,  fring- 
ing the  coast  of  a  continent,  little  connected  with  each  other, 
little  heeded  by  their  metropolis,  almost  unknown  to  the  world.' 
They  were  hound  together  only  as  British  America,  that  part 
of  tlie  western  hemisphere  which  the  English  nund  had  appro- 
priated. England  was  the  mother  of  its  language,  the  home 
of  Its  traditions,  the  source  of  its  laws,  and  the  land  on  which 
Its  affections  centred.  And  yet  it  was  an  offset  from  England, 
nthor  than  an  integral  part  of  it ;  an  empire  of  itself,  free 
from  nobility  and  prelacy ;  not  only  Pi-otestant,  but  by  a  vast 


i., 


I  i 


iA  III. 


fl  I 


I '  I 


!»' 


I'l  'i 


!■  ill 

it: 


I      t  :;i 


32S       OVKUTIIIIOW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  KYSTEM.    kp,  i.;  uii.  i. 

majority  (]is8(."iitiii<;  from  tlio  ehiircli  of  Englund  ;  attracting 
tlic  cotiniioiicrs  and  [jlchuian  HoctH  of  tliu  parent  country,  and 
rendered  eo.sniopolitan  by  reeruita  from  tlio  nations  of  the 
Euro|)ean  eontinent.  By  the  benignity  of  the  law,  tlio  nativcH 
of  other  hinds  were  received  as  citizens  ;  and  political  e(]iiiility 
was  the  talisman  that  harmoniously  blended  all  their  ditfer- 
onces,  and  inspired  a  new  public  life,  dearer  than  their  niotlier 
tongue,  their  memories,  and  their  kindred.  Dutch,  French 
Scandinavian,  and  (Jcrman  renounced  their  nationality,  to 
claim  the  rights  of  Englishmen  in  America. 

The  extent  of  those  rights,  as  hc!<l  by  the  colonists,  had 
never  been  ])recisely  ascertauied.  Of  all  the  forma  of  civil 
government  of  which  they  had  heard  or  read,  no  one  appeared 
to  them  so  well  suited  to  preserve  liberty,  and  to  secure  the 
advantages  of  civil  society,  as  the  English ;  and  of  this  happy 
constitution  of  the  mother  country,  which  it  was  usual  to  rej)- 
resent,  and  almost  to  adore,  as  approacliing  j)crfection,  they 
held  their  own  to  be  a  copy,  with  additional  privileges  not  en- 
joyed by  the  common  ])eople  in  the  old  home.  The  elective 
fi-anchise  was  more  eijually  diffused ;  there  were  no  decayed 
boroughs,  or  unrepresented  towns ;  representation,  which  was 
iinivx'rsal,  conformed  more  nearly  to  population;  for  more 
than  half  the  inhabitants,  their  legislative  assemblies  were 
chosen  annually  and  by  ballot,  and  the  time  for  convening' 
their  legislatures  was  fixed  by  a  fundamental  law ;  the  civil 
list  in  every  colony  but  one  was  voted  annually,  and  annually 
subjected  to  scrutiny ;  nuuiicipal  liberties  and  local  self-govern- 
ments were  more  independent  and  more  extensive ;  in  none  of 
the  colonies  was  there  an  ecclesiastical  court,  and  in  most  of 
them  there  was  no  esti'blished  church  or  religious  test  of  ca- 
pacity for  office ;  the  cultivator  of  the  soil  was,  for  the  most 
part,  a  freeholder ;  in  all  the  continent  the  people  possessed 
anns,  and  the  able-bodied  men  were  enrolled  and  trained  to 
their  use. 

The  relations  of  the  colonies  to  Great  Britain,  whether  to 
the  king  or  to  the  parliament,  were  still  more  vague  and  unde- 
fined. They  Avere  planted  under  grants  from  the  crown,  and, 
to  tlie  last,  the  king  in  council  was  their  highest  court  of  ap- 
peal" •  yet,  while  the  court  lawyers  of  the  seventeenth  century 


h  I 


1718.  AMLiiJICA  CLAIMS  LEGISLATIVE  INDEPENDENCE.    329 

asserted  for  tlie  kinpj  unlitnih-d  le<,'isl;ilivo  authority  in  tho 
pliintatioiis,  tlio  colonies  wet  hoimds  to  the  royul  prerogative, 
eitiier  tliroii^Hi  eliartcr^  whieh  the  erown  hiul\-rinite(l,  or  by 
the  triuliti<)nary  |)rincii)leH  of  Kn^rlish  liherty,  or  by  the  innate 
energy  whieli,  ai(h-(l  by  (b'.stanee,  fearlessly  assumed  self-direc- 
tion. 

The  nwHiod  adopted  in  Enf,dand  for  superintending  Ameri- 
can alfairs,  by  means  of  a  board  of  ooMimis>i.)ners  for  trade 
and  plantations  who  had  neither  a  volee  in  tlie  deliberatioii  of 
the  cabinet  nor  access  to  tho  king,  involved  the  colonies  in 
ever-increasing  confusion.     The   boara   framed    instmctions, 
without  i)o\ver  to  enforce  them,  or  to  propose  measurt  ^  for 
their  elHeieney ;  it  took  cognizance  of  all  events,  and  might  in- 
vestigate, give  information,  or  advise,  Itnt  it  had  no  nithority 
to  decide  any  political  (piestiou  whatever,     fn  those  t,.iys  two 
secretaries  of  state  managed  the  foreign  relations  oi    (ireat 
IJritain.     Tho  exeert!  o  power  with  regard  to  tho  colonies  was 
reserved  to  the  one  wh«    had  tho  care  of  what  was  called  '.ho 
southc    1  department,  v.hieh  included  tho  Sp  tuisli  peni-unla 
and  1  ranco.     The  board  of  trade,  framed  originaily  to  re-lore 
the  connnerco  and  encour.^o  the  tisheries  of  the  n'lother  li-nd, 
was  compelled  to  hear  complaints  from  tho  executive  officers 
in  America,  to  issue  instructions  to  them,  and  to  receive  and 
consider  all  acts  of  the  colonial  legislatures  ;  but  it  had  no 
filial  responsibility  for  tlie  s.ystom  of  AmericMi  policy  that 
might  be  adopted.     Hence,  from  their  very  feebleness,  the 
lords  of  trade  were   ever   impadont  of  contradiction,  easily 
grew  vexed  at  disobedience  to  their  orders,  and  inclined  to 
suggest  tho  harsliest  methods  of  coercion,  knoving  that  their 
counsels  would  slumber  in  official  papers,  unless  it  shoidd  touch 
the  pride  or  waken  the  resentment  of  the  responsible  mini.ier, 
the  crown,  and  parliament. 

The  effect  (»f  their  recommendations  would  depend  on  the 
character  and  influence  of  the  person  who  might  happen  to  be 
the  secretary  of  state  for  the  south.  A  long  course  of  inde- 
cision had  multiplied  tho  questions  on  which  the  demands  and 
the  customs  of  the  colonies  were  at  variance  with  the  maxims 
of  the  board  of  trade. 

In  April  1 724,  the  seals  for  the  southcru  department  and 


\   tifll 


t 


I  iM. 


Mi   .,  ! 


330       OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


EP.  I. ;  cu.  I. 


the  colonies  had  been  intrusted  by  Sir  Eobert  AValpole  to  the 
duke  of  iS'ewcastle.  For  nearly  four-aud-twenty  years  he  re- 
mained minister  for  British  America ;  yet,  to  the  last,  knew 
little  of  the  continent  of  which  he  was  the  guardian.  It  used 
to  be  said  that  he  addressed  letters  to  "  the  island  of  Kew 
England,"  and  could  not  tell  but  that  Jamaica  was  in  the  Med- 
iterranean. Heaps  of  colonial  memoi-ials  and  letters  remained 
unread  in  his  office ;  and  a  paper  was  almost  sure  cf  neglect 
unless  some  agent  remained  with  him  to  see  it  opened.  His 
frivolous  nature  could  never  glow  Avitli  aiiection,  nor  grasp  a 
great  idea,  nor  analyze  comple  >-elations.  After  long  research 
I  cannot  tind  that  he  ever  one.  ittended  seriously  to  an  Ameri- 
can question. 

The  power  of  the  house  of  commons  in  Great  Biitain 
rested  on  its  exclusive  right  to  grant  annually  the  suj^phes  nec- 
essary for  carrying  on  the  government,  thus  securing  an  ev2r- 
recurring  opportunity  for  demanding  the  redress  of  wrongs. 
In  like  manner,  the  strength  of  the  people  in  America  con- 
sisted in  the  exclusive  right  of  its  assemblies  to  levy  and  to 
appropriate  colonial  taxes.     In  England,  the  king  obtained  a 
civil  list  for  life ;  in  America,  the  rapacity  of  the  governors 
made  it  expedient  to  keep  them  dependent  for  their  salaries 
on  annual  grants,  of  wluch  the  amount  was  regulated,  from 
year  to  year,  by  a  consideration  of  the  merits  of  the  officer,  as 
well  as  the  opidence  of  the  province.     It  was  easy  for  a  gov- 
ernor to  obtain  instmctions  to  demand  peremptorily  a  large, 
settled,  and  permanent  support ;  but  the  assemblies  treated  in- 
structions as  binding  executive  officers  only,  and  claimed  an 
uncontrolled  freedom  of  deliberation  and  decision.    To  remove 
the  incfjnsistency,  the  king  must  pay  his  officers  from  an  inde- 
l)endent  fund,  or  change  his  orders.     Newcastle  did  neither ; 
he  continued  the  instructions,  and  privately  consented  to  their 
being  slighted.    Having  the  patronage  of  a  continent,  he  would 
gratify  his  connections  in  the  aristocratic  families  of  England 
l)y  intrusting  the  royal  ])rerogative  to  men  of  broken  fortunes, 
dissolute  and  ignorant,  too  vile  to  be  employed  near  home ;  so 
that  America  became  the  hos])ital  of  Great  IJritain  for  decayed 
members  of  parliament  and  dissolute  courtiers,  whose  conduct 
was  sure  to  provoke  distrust  and  to  justify  oi>position.    But 


1748.  AMERICA  CLAIMS  LEGISLzVTlVE  INDEPENDENCE.    331 

he  was  satisiiod  \ntli  distributing  to  them  offices ;  and,  for  tlieir 
salaries,  abandoned  them  to  the  annual  deliberations  of  the 
colonial  legislatures.  Standing  between  the  lords  of  trade  ^\•ho 
framed  instructions,  and  the  cabinet  which  alone  could  propose 
iiieaiiures  to  enforce  them,  he  served  as  a  non-conductor  to  the 
angry  zeal  of  the  foraier,  whose  places,  under  such  a  secretary, 
became  more  and  more  nearly  sinecures ;  while  America,  neo«- 
lected  in  England,  and  rightly  resisting  her  deputed  rulers, 
went  on  her  Avay  rejoicing  toward  freedom  and  independence. 

Disputes  accunndated  with  every  year ;  but  Newcastle  tem- 
porized to  the  last;  and,  in  February  1748,  on  the  resignation 
of  the  earl  of  Chesterfield,  he  escaped  from  the  embarrass- 
ments of  American  affairs  by  taking  the  seals  for  the  northern 
(lepai'tment.  Those  of  the  southern  were  intrusted  to  the  duke 
of  Bedford. 

The  new  secretary  was  "  a  man  of  inflexible  honesty  and 
good-will  to  his  country,"  "imtainted  by  dupHcity  or  timidity." 
His  abilities  were  not  brilliant,  but  his  rank  and  fortTme  gave 
him  political  consideration.  In  1744,  he  had  entered  the  Pel- 
Iiani  ministry  as  first  lord  of  the  admiralty,  bringing  Avith  him 
to  tliat  board  George  Grenville  and  the  carl  of  Sandwich.  In 
tliat  station,  his  orders  to  Warren  contributed  to  the  conquest 
of  Louisburg.  In  tlie  last  Avar  he  had  cherished  "  the  darling 
pi'oject "  of  contpiering  Canada,  and  "  the  great  and  practicable 
vie\vs  iov  America  "  were  said  by  Pitt  to  have  "  sprung  from 
him  alone."  Proud  of  his  knowledge  of  trade,  and  his  al)ility 
to  speak  readily,  he  entered  without  distrust  on  the  administra- 
tion of  a  continent. 

Of  tlie  two  dukes,  who,  at  this  epoch  of  the  culminating 
]io\ver  of  the  aristocracy,  guided  the  external  policy  of  Eng- 
laiul,  cacli  liastened  the  independence  of  America.  Newcastle, 
who  M-as  childless,  depended  on  oftice  for  all  his  pleasure  ;  Bed- 
ford, though  sometimes  fond  of  })lace,  was  to(j  i)roud  to  covet 
it  always.  Newcastle  liad  no  jjassion  but  business,  which  ho 
conducted  in  a  fretful  hurry,  and  never  finished  ;  the  graver 
I'cdford,  though  fond  of  "  theatricals  and  jollity,"  Avas  yet  capa- 
ble of  persevering  in  a  system.  NeAvcast'le  Avas  of  "so  tickle  a 
head  and  so  treacherous  a  heart"  that  AValpole  called  his 
"  name  Perfidy ;"  Henry  iu.v,  the  first  Lord  Holland,  said  "he 


I 


''  I 


lit 


;  IS 


1 

^1   I  ■  ^1 


S; 


Pte'tS:' 


332      OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  i. 

had  no  friends,  and  deserved  none;"  and  Lord  Halifax  used 
to  revile  him  as  "a knave  and  a  fool ;  "  he  was  too  unstable  to 
be  led  by  others,  and,  from  his  own  instinct  about  majorities 
shifted  liis  sails  as  the  wind  shifted.    Bedford,  who  was  bold 
and  unbending  and  would  do  notliing  but  what  he  himself 
thought  "indisputably  right,"  was  "always  governed,"  and 
was  "immeasurably  obstinate  in  an  opinion  once  received" 
being  "  the  most  ungovernable  governed  man  in  England'" 
and  the  most  faithful  to  the  "  bandits"  who  formed  his  poUt'i- 
cal  connection.     Neither  was  crael  or  revengeful ;  but,  while 
the  one  "had  no  rancor  or  ill-nature,"  and  no  enmities  but 
freaks  of  petulance,  the  other  carried  decision  into  his  attach- 
ments and  his  feuds.     Newcastle  lavished  promises,  familiar 
caresses,  tears  and  kisses  and  cringing  professions  of  regai-d 
Avith  prodigal  hypocrisy;  Bedford  knew  no  wiles,  was  blunt' 
unal)as]ied,  and,  without  being  aware  of  it,  i-udely  impetuous' 
evcn^  m  the  presence  of  his  sovereign.    Newcastle  was  jealous 
of  rivals ;  Bedford  was  impatient  of  contradiction.     Newcastle 
was  timorous  without  caution,  and,  arbitrary  from  thoughtless- 
ness, rushed  into  difficulties  which  he  evaded  by  indecision  • 
the  positive  Bedford,  energetic  without  sagacity,  and  stubborn' 
with  but  a  narrow  range  of  thought,  scorned  to  shun  deciding 
any  question  that  might  arise,  grew  choleric  at  resistance,  could 
not  or  would  not  foresee  obstacles,  and  was  known  throughout 
America  as  ready  at  all  hazards  to  vindicate  authority. 


1748.         THE  PREROGATIVE  OR  THE  PARLIAMENT. 


333 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    EOTAL    GOVERNOR    OF    NEW   YORK    APPEALS    TO    THE   PARA- 
OI'    DKITAIN.        IIENKY    1'ELIIAm's    ADMINISTRA- 


jrOUNT    POWER 
TION 


1748-1749. 


In  July  1748,  no  fortress  in  tlie  Highlands  as  yet  kept 
watcli  over  the  infrequent  bai-k  that  spread  its  sails  to  the  fro- 
Avard  suinnaer  breeze.  The  dense  forests,  which  came  down 
the  hillsides  to  the  edges  of  the  river,  were  but  rarely  broken 
by  openings  round  the  houses  of  a  thinly  scattered  tenantry, 
and  by  the  solitary  mansions  of  the  few  proprietaries,  who, 
under  lavish  grants,  claimed  manors  of  undefined  extent,  and 
even  whole  counties  for  their  inheritance.  Through  these 
scenes,  George  CHnton,  an  unlettered  British  admi?al,  who, 
being  connected  wiJi  oth  Newcastle  and  Bedford,  had  been 
sent  to  America  to  .^nd  his  fortunes  as  governor  of  New 
York,  was  making  his  way  toward  Albany,  where  the  friend- 
sliip  of  the  Six  Nations  was  to  be  confirmed  by  a  treaty  of 
their  chiefs  with  commissioners  from  several  colonies,  and  the 
encroachments  of  France  were  to  be  circuiuscribed  by  a  con- 
cert for  defence. 

As  his  barge  emerged  from  the  Highlands,  it  neared  the 
western  bank  to  receive  on  board  Cadwallader  Golden,  the 
•jldest  member  of  the  royal  council.  How  often  had  tlie 
governor  and  liis  advisers  joined  in  deploring  "the  levdhng 
principles  of  the  people  of  New  York  and  the  neighboring 
colonies;"  "the  tendencies  of  American  legislatures  to  in- 
dependence;" their  unwarrantable  presumption  in  "declaring 
their  own  rghts  and  privileges;"  their  ambitious  efforts  "to 
wrest  the  administration  from  the  king's  officers,"  hy  refusing 
ftxed  salaries  and  compeliiug  the  respective  governors  to  an- 


ig. 

1  ' 

1  ' 

:  1 

1 

u 

'I 

ill 

i 
■■ 

:  1  ■■ 

■  r . 

■  1 

f  i 


f  f 


lo 


334     OVERTHROW  OF  THE  OOLOXIAL  SYSTEM,     ep.  i.  ;  ou.  ,i. 

nual  capitulations  for  their  support !    How  liad  they  conspired 
to  dissuade  the  English  govornment  from  countenancing  the 
opulent  James  Delancey,  then  chief  justice  of  the  produce 
and  the  leader  of  the  oiiposition !     "  The  inhabitants  of  the 
plantations,"  they  reiterated  to  one  another  and  to  the  ministry 
"  are  generally  educated  in  republican  principles ;  upon  repub- 
lican principles  all  is  conducted.     Little  more  than  a  shadow 
of  royal  authority  remains  in  the  northern  colonies."    Very 
recently  the  importunities  of  Clinton  had  offered  the  duke  of 
NcAvcastle  "  the  dilemma  of  supporting  the  governor's  author- 
ity, or  relinrpiishing  power  to  a  popular  faction."     "  It  will  be 
impossible,"  said  one  of  his  letters,  which  Avas  then  before  the 
king,  "  to  secure  this  proWnce  from  the  enemy,  or  from  a  fac- 
tion Avithin  it,  without  the  assistance  of  regular  troops,  two 
thousand  men  at  least.     There  never  was  so  much  silver  in 
the  country  as  at  present,  and  the  inhabitants  never  were  so 
expensive  in  their  habits  of  life.     They,  with  the  southern 
colonies,  can  well  discharge  this  expense." 

The  party  of  royalists  who  had  devised  the  congress,  as 
subsidiary  to  the  war  between  France  and  England,  were 
overtaken  by  the  news  that  in  April  preliminaries  of  peace 
had  been  signed  by  the  European  belligerents;  and  they 
eagerly  seized  the  opportunity  of  returning  tranquiUity  to 
form  plans  for  governing  and  taxing  the  colonies  by  the 
supreme  authority  of  Great  Britain.  A  colonial  revenue, 
through  British  interposition,  was  desired  for  the  common 
defence  of  America,  and  to  defray  the  civil  list  in  the  re- 
spective provinces.  Could  an  independent  income  be  obtahied 
for  either  of  these  purposes,  it  might,  by  degrees,  be  applied 
to  both. 

To  the  convention  in  Albany  came  William  Shiriey,  al- 
ready for  seven  years  governor  of  Massachusetts;  an  English 
lawyer,  artful,  needy,  and  ambitious ;  a  member  of  the  church 
of  England ;  indiiferent  to  the  laws  and  the  faith  of  the  peo- 
ple whom  he  governed,  appointed  originally  to  restore  or  in- 
troduce British  authority,  and  more  relied  upon  than  any 
croA\m  officer  in  America.  With  him  appeared  Andrew  Oli- 
A^er  and  Thomas  Hutchinson,  both  natives  and  residents  of 
Boston,  as  commissioners  from  Massachusetts.     Oliver,  bred  at 


1748.         THE  PREROGATIVE  OR  THE  PARLIAMENT.  335 

Harvard  college,  joined  solid  learning  to  a  good  knowledo-e  of 
the  affairs  of  the  province,  and  could  write  well.  DistincniShed 
iov  sobriety  of  conduct  and  the  forms  of  piety,  ho  enjoyed 
iml»lic  coniidence;  but  at  heart  he  was  ruled  by  the  love  of 
money  ;^  and,  having  diminished  his  patrimony  by  imsuccess- 
ful  traffic,  was  greedy  of  office. 

The  complaisant,  cultivated,  and  truly  intelligent  Hutch- 
inson was  now  speaker  of  the  house  of  assembly  in  Massachu- 
setts; the  most  plausible,  able,  and  ambitious  man  in  that 
colony.    Loving  praise  himself,  he  soothed  with  blandishments 
any  one  who  bade  fair  to  advance  his  ends.     To  the  Cono-re- 
gational  clergy  he  paid  assiduous  deference ;  but  his  formally 
pious  life,  and  unfailing  attendance  "at  meeting,"  were  little 
more  than  a  continuous  llattery.     He  shunned  uttering  a  di- 
rect falsehood,  but  did  not  scruple  to  equivocate  and  to  de- 
ceive.   He  courted  the  people,  but,  from  boyhood,  disliked 
them,  and  used  their  favor  only  as  steps  to  promotion.   Though 
well  educated,  and  of  uncommon  endowments,  and  famed  lit 
college  as  of  great  promise,  he  became  a  trader  in  his  native 
town,  and,  like  others,  smuggled  goods,  which  he  sold  at  retail. 
Faihng  of  profits,  he  withdrew  from  mercantile  pursuits;  but 
to  gain  property  remained  the  most  ardent  desire  of  his  soul 
He  had  been  in  England  as  agent  of  Massachusetts  at  the  time 
when  taxing  America  by  parliament  first  began  to  be  talked 
of,  and  had  thus  become  acquainted  with  British  statesmen, 
the  maxims  of  the  board  of  trade,  and  the  way  in  which  Eno-- 
hshnien  reasoned  about  the  colonies.     He  loved  the  land  of 
his  nativity,  and  made  a  study  of  its  laws  and  history ;  but  he 
knew  that  all  considera1)le  emcuiments  of  office  sprung  not 
from  his  frugal  countrymen,  but  from  royal  favor.     He  had 
clear  discemment,  and,  where  unbiassed  by  his  own  interests, 
he  preferred  to  do  what  was  right ;  but  liis  sordid  nature  led 
him  to  worship  power;  he  could  stoop  to  solicit  justice  as  a 
boon ;  and  a  small  temptation  would  easily  sway  him  to  be- 
come tlie  instrument  of  oppression.     At  the  same  time  he 
excelled  in  dissimulation,  and  knew  how  to  veil  his  selfishness 
under  the  appearance  of  pubUc  spirit. 

The  congress  at  Albany  \vas  thronged   beyond   example 
hy  the  chiefs  of  the  Six  :Nations  and  their  aUies.     They  re- 


M. 


.i . 


n^i 


I  i: 


i    I 


»|i 


,   I 


1 

( 

i,   ■ 

f 

i   i 


336      OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


EP.  I.  ;    CH.  II, 


i\"' 


i-  * 


I  ^i 


■|i  I 


solved  to  have  no  Frencli  ^vithin  their  l)orders,  nor  even  to  send 
d(>[>uties  to  Canada,  but  to  leave  to  English  mediation  the  re- 
covery of  tlieir  brethren  from  captivity.  It  was  announced 
that  tribes  of  tlie  far  West,  dwelling  on  branches  of  Erie  and 
the  Ohio,  incHiieil  to  friendship ;  and,  nearly  at  tluit  momfiit, 
envoys  from  their  villages  Avere  at  Lancaster,  solemnizing  a 
treaty  of  commerce  Avitli  Pennsylvania.  Returning  peace  was 
hailed  as  the  happy  moment  for  bringing  the  Miamis  and  their 
neighbors  within  the  covenant  chu-a  of  the  English,  and  thus 
extending  Bi'itisli  jurisdiction  to  the  AVal)ash. 

The  lighted  calumet  had  been  passed  from  mouth  to  moutli  • 
the  graves  of  the  red  heroes,  slain  in  war,  had  been  covered 
A\"th  exi>iating  presents;  \\'ampum  belts  of  confirmed  love  had 
been  exchanged— when  the  commissioners  of  IMassachusetts, 
ado  ^ing  tlu'  opinions  and  almost  the  language  of  Chnton  and 
Shirley,  represented  to  tiicm,  in  a  memorial,  that,  as  Massachu- 
setts, New   11, imp.' 1  lire,  and  New   York  were  the  biu-rier  of 
America  against  the  L'reneh,  the  charge  of  defending  tlieir 
frontiers  ought  as  little  to  rest  on  those  provinces  as  the  charge 
of  defending  any  counties  in  Great  Britain  on  such  counties 
alone;  tli;'  the  other  governments  had  l)een  invited  to  join  in 
concerting  measures,  but  all,  excepting  Connecticut,  had  de- 
clined ;  they  therefore  urged  an  a^ip ligation  to  the  king,  that 
the  remoter  colonies,  which  were  not  innnediately  exposed, 
might  be  ol)h'ged  to  contribute  in  a  just  proportion  toward  the 
exi)ense  of  protecting  the  inland  territories  of  New  England 
and  Now  York.     The  two  governors,  as,  in  August,  they  for- 
warded the  jxiper  to  the  board  of  trade,  subjoined  :  "  AVe  agi-ee 
with  tiie  memorialists." 

The  luiste  or  the  negligence  of  the  British  plenipotentiaries 
at  Aix-la-Chapelle  had  determined  their  bouiulary  in  Ameiica 
along  its  wliole  line,  only  by  the  vague  agreement  that  it  should 
be  as  it  had  been  before  the  war ;  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ])efore  the  war  it  liad  never  ceased  to  be  a  subject  of 
altercation.  In  tliis  condition  of  an  accepted  treaty  of"  i)eace 
and  an  unsettled  limit  of  jurisdiction,  each  party  hurried  to 
oceuiiy  in  advance  as  much  territory  as  possible  without 
too  openly  compromising  their  respective  governments.  Aca- 
dia, according  to  its  ancient  boundaries,  l)elonged  to  Great 


1748.         THE  PREROGATIVE  OR  THE  PARLIAMENT.  337 

Britain;  but  France  had  always,  even  in  times  of  peace,  de- 
clared  that  Acadia  included  only  the  peninsula ;  before  the  res- 
toration  of  Cape  Breton,  an  officer  from  Canada  occupied  the 
istlunus  between  Bay  Verte  and  the  Bay  of  Fundy ;  a  small 
colony  kept  possession  of  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John's  river- 
and  the  claim  as  far  west  as  the  Kennebec  had  never  been  aban- 
doned. 

At  the  West,  France  had  uniformly  claimed  the  whole  basin 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  of  the  Mississippi ;  and,  in  proof  of  its 
rightful  possession,  pointed  to  its  castles  at  Cro^v^l  Point  at 
Niagara,  among  the  Miamis,  and  in  Louisiana.    Ever  reo-arding 
the  friendship  of  the  Six  Nations  as  a  bulwark  essential  to 
security.   La   Galissonicre,   the   governor-general  of   Canada 
treated  them  as  the  allies  of  the  French  no  less  than  of  the 
English;  and,  still  further  to  secure  their  alfections,  the  self- 
de    ^ed  Abbe  Francis  Picquet  occupied  by  a  mission  Oswe- 
gatciiie,  now  Ogdensburg,  at  the  head  of  the  rapids,  on  the 
southern  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence.     For  the  more  distan*  re- 
gions, orders  were  sent,  in  October,  to  the  commandant  at  Be- 
troit,  to  oppose  by  force  every  English  establishment  on  the 
Maninee,  the  Wabash,  and  the  Ohio;  or,  if  his  strength  was 
insufficient,  to  summon  the  intruder  to  depart;  under  highest 
perils  for  disobedience. 

Plausible  reasons,  therefore,  existed  for  the  memorial  of 
Hutchinsou  and  Oliver;  but  the  more  cherished  purpose  of 
those  who  directed  this  congress  at  Albany  was  the  secure  en- 
joyment  of  the  emoluments  of  office,  without  responsibility  to 
tbe  respective  American  provinces.  "  From  past  experiments," 
added  Clinton  and  Shirley,  jointly,  as  they  forwarded  the  os- 
tensibly innocent  petition,  "  we  are  convinced  that  the  colonies 
will  never  agree  on  quotas,  which  must  therefore  be  settled  by 
royal  instmctions ;  and  there  has  been  so  Httle  regard  paid  in 
several  colonies  to  the  royal  instructions  that  it  is  requisite  to 
think  of  some  method  to  enforce  them." 

How  to  reduce  a  factious  colony  had  already  been  settled 
h:  tlie  great  masters  of  English  jurisprudence.  Two  systems 
oi  government  had  long  been  at  variance :  the  one  founded  on 
prerogative,  the  other  on  the  supremacy  of  iiariiament.  The 
nrst  opinion  had  been  professed  by  many  of  t: 


VOL.  II. — 22 


diixUer  lawyers 


1 

1 

'  1      ' 

t"  ,:■'•' 


hi 


t    I 


I 

VI ; 

■  i 

i 

i 

if 

.!  [(^ 

I',  i 


338     OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM,     ep. 


I. ;  cu.  a. 


w  no  considered  tlie  colonics  as  dependent  on  the  crown  alone. 
Even  after  the  revolution,  tlio  chief  justice  at  New  York  in 
1702,  declared  that  "in  the  plantations  the  kin<^  governs  by  his 
prerogative  ; "  and  Sir  John  Holt  had  said,  "  Virginia  bcin<r  a 
conquered  country,  their  law  is  what  the  king  pleases."     But 
when,  in  1711,  New  York,  during  the  administration  of  Hun- 
ter, was  left  without  a  revenue,  the  high  powers  of  parliairiont 
were  the  resource  of  the  ministers ;  and  they  prepared  a  hill 
reciting  the  neglect  of  the  province,  and  imposing  all  the  taxes 
which  had  been  discontinued  by  its  legislature.     Northey  and 
Eaynu)n(l,  the  attorney  and  the  solicitor  general,  knvyers  of  the 
greatest  authority,  approved  the  measure.     When,  in  1721,  a 
sinular  strife  occurred  between  the  crown  and  Jamaica,  and  some 
held  that  the  king  and  his  privy  council  had  a  right  to  levy 
taxes  on  the  inhabitants  of  that  island,  the  crown  lawyers.  Lord 
Ilardwicke,  then  Sir  Philip  Yorke,  and  Sir  Clement  Wourg, 
made  the  memorable  reply,  that  "  a  colony  of  English  subjects 
cannot  be  tiixed  but  by  some  representative  body  of  their  own, 
or  by  the  parliament  of  England."     That  opinion  im])resscd 
itself  early  and  deeply  on  the  mind  of  Lord  Mansfield,  and,  in 
October  1711,  when  the  neglect  of  Pennsylvania  to  render  aid 
in  the  war  had  engaged  the  attention  of  the  ministry.  Sir  Dud- 
ley Kyder  and  Lord  Mansfield,  then  William  Murray,  declared 
that  "a  colonial  assembly  cannot  be  compelled  to  do  more 
toward  their  own  defence  than  they  shall  see  fit,  unless  by  the 
force  of  an  act  of  parliament,  which  alone  can  prescribe  rules 
of  conduct  for  them."     Away,  then,  with  all  attempts  to  com- 
pel by  prerogative,  to  govern  by  instructions,  to  obtain  a  reve- 
nue by  royal  requisitions,  to  fix  quotas  by  a  councnl  of  crown 
ofiicers !     No  power  but  that  of  parliament  can  overrule  the 
colonial  assemblies. 

Such  was  the  doctrine  of  Murray,  who  was  himself  able  to 
defend  his  system,  being  unrivalled  in  debate  except  by  Will- 
iam Pitt.  The  advice  of  this  illustrious  jurist  was  the  more 
authoritative  because  he  "had  long  known  the  Americans." 
"  I  began  life  with  them,"  said  he,  on  a  later  occasion,  "  and 
owe  much  to  them,  having  been  much  concerned  in  the  plan- 
tation causes  before  the  privy  council.  So  I  became  a  good 
deal  acquainted  with  American  affairs  and  people."     During 


1748.        THE   PREROGATIVE  OR  THE  PARLIAMENT.  339 

tl.o  (liacuBsions  that  are  now  to  be  related,  he  was  often  con- 
sulted hy  the  agents  of  the  American  royalists.  His  opinion, 
coinci.llng  with  that  of  Ilardwicke,  was  ai)plauded  by  the  board 
of  trade,  and  became  the  corner-st(jne  of  Jjritish  policy. 

On  this  theory  of  parliamentary  supremacy  Shirley  and 
his  associates  placed  their  i-eliancc.  Under  his  advice  it  was 
secretly  resolved  to  bring  the  disputes  between  govei-nors  and 
American  assemblies  to  a  crisis;  the  return  of  peace  was 
.selected  as  the  epoch  for  the  experiment;  elaborate  documents 
l)repared  the  ministry  for  the  stniggle;  and  (Clinton  was  to 
extort  from  the  colonial  legislature  tixed  salaries  and  revenues 
at  the  royal  disposition,  or,  by  producing  extreme  disorder,  to 
compel  the  interposition  of  the  parliament  of  CIreat  Britain. 

To  the   assembly  which  met  in  October  1748,  Clinton, 
faithful  to  his  engagements,  and  choosing  ]N"cw  York  as  the 
opening  scene  in  the  iinal  contest  that  led  to  independence, 
declared  that  the  methods  adopted  for  colonial  supplies  "  nuide 
it  his  indispensable  duty  at  the  iirst  opportunity  to  put  a  stop  to 
these  innovations;"  and  he  demanded,  what  had  so  often  been 
refused,  the  grant  of  a  revenue  to  the  king  for  at  least  iive 
yeai-s.     The  assembly,  in  reply,  insisted  on  naming  in  their 
grants  the  incumbent  of  each  office.     "  From  recent  experi- 
ence," they  continue,  "we  are  fully  convinced  that  the  method 
of  an  annual  support  is  most  wholesome  and  salutary,  and  are 
contirmed  in  the  opinion  that  the  faithful  re])resentatives  of  the 
peoi)le  will  never  depart  from  it."    Warning  them  of  the  anger 
of  "  parhament,"  Clinton  prorogued  the  assembly ;  and,  in  ^oods 
of  letters  and  documents,  represented  to  the  secretary  of  state 
that  its  members  "had  set  up  the  people  as  the  high"  court  of 
American  appeal;"   that  "they  claimed  all  the   powers  and 
privileges  of  parliament;"    that  they  "virtually  assumed  all 
the  i)ublic  money  into  their  own  hands,  and  issued  it  without 
warrant  from  the  governor;"  that  "they  took  to  themselves 
the  sole^  power  of  rewarding  all  services,  and,  in  effect,  the 
nomination  to  all  offices,  by  granting  the  salary  annually  not 
to  the  office,  but,  by  name,  to  the  person  in  the  office ; "  that 
the  system,  "  if  not  speedily  remedied,  would  affect  the  de- 
pendency of  the  colonies  on  the  crown."     And  he  entreated 
the  king  to  «  make  a  good  exiuuple  for  all  America  by  regular 


\    -i 


i/ 


11 

i 

h  it 

fl' 

1    •: 

: 

■; 

__j 

340     OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM,    kp.  i.  ;  ok.  n. 

ing  tlio  govenmiont  of  Now  York."  "  Till  then,"  ho  added 
"  I  cannot  meet  the  assembly  witiiout  danger  of  exposing  the 
king'rt  uiitliority  and  myself  to  contempt." 

Thus  Ibsuc  was  joined  Avith  a  view  to  involve  the  Britiish 
parliament  in  the  adminisf ration  of  the  colonies  just  at  the 
time  when  Bedford,  as  the  secretary,  was  resolving  to  intro- 
duce uniformity  into  their  administration  by  suppoiting  the 
authority  of  the  eenti'al  government ;  and  his  characiter  was  a 
guarantee  for  resolute  pei-severance.    "Considering  the  present 
situaticjn  of  things,"  he  had  declared  to  Newcastle,  "it  would 
be  highly  imi^-oper  to  have  an  iiiefficient  man  at  the  head  of 
the  board  of  trade  ;"  and,  at  his  suggestion,  on  the  lirst  d.iy  of 
November  IT-tS,  two  months  after  the  peace  of  America  and 
Europe  had  been  j-atilied,  the  earl  of  Halifax,  then  ju-t  thirty- 
two  years  old,  entered  upon  his  long  period  of  service  as  first 
cominissioner  foi-  the  plantations.     lie  was  fond  of  splendor 
profuse,  and  in  debt;  passionate,  overbearing,  and  self-willed; 
"of  moderate  sense,  and  ignorant  of  the  world."     Familiar 
\vith  a  feeble  class  of  belles-lettres,  he  loved  to  declaim  long 
passages  from  Prior ;  but  his  mind  had  not  been  trained  by 
severer  studies.     As  a  public  man,  he  was  withoii ;   sagacity, 
yet  unwilling  to  defer  to  any  one.     Eesolved  to  elevate  him- 
self by  enlarging  tlie  dignity  and  power  of  his  employment,  he 
devoted  himself  to  the  business  of  the  plantations,  coniiding  iu 
his  ability  to  master  their  affairs  almost  by  intuition,  wiitiiig 
his  own  despatches,  and,  with  the  undoubting  self-reliance  of 
a  presumptuous  novice,  ready  to  advance  fixed  opinions  and 
plans  of  action.     The  condition  of  the  continent,  whose  affairs 
ho  was  to  superintend,  seemed  t^  >  invite  his  immediate  activity, 
alike  to  secure  the  possessions  of  Great  Britain  against  France, 
and  to  maintain  the  authority  of  the  central  government  against 
the  colonies  themselves. 

As  he  read  the  jiapcrs  which  had  accunmlated  in  the  board 
of  trade,  and  the  despatches  which  time-serving  subordinates 
were  sending  in  as  fast  as  the  change  in  the  spirit  of  the  ad- 
ministration became  known,  the  colonies  seemed,  from  the 
irresolution  of  his  predecessors,  tending  to  legislative  inde- 
pendence and  rebellion.  "  Hero,"  wrote  Glen,  the  governor 
of  South  Carolina,  "levelling  priuci]:)les  prevail;  the  frame 


KP.  I. ;   OK.  u. 


1748         THE   PRKIIOGATIVE  OB  TIIE  rARLIAMENT.  341 

..f  the  civil  government  is  unliinged ;  a  governor,  if  ho  would 
he  iduhzed,  niiist  betray  his  trust;  tiie  i)e<>ple  have  got  the 
wliole  adniiuistration  in  their  hands;  tiie  election  of  niem- 
hcrs  to  the  assembly  is  by  ballot;  not  civil  posts  only,  but  all 
ecclesiastical  preferments,  are  in  the  disposa'  or  election  of  the 
people;  to  preserve  the  dependence  of  America  in  general 
the  constitution  laust  be  new  modelled."  ' 

In  JN'orth  Carolina  no  law  for  collecting  quit-rents  had 
been  perfected,  and  its  frugal  i)eople,  whom  their  governor 
reported  as  "  wild  and  barbarous,"  paid  the  servants  of  the 
crown  scantily  and  tardily. 

In  Virginia-the  land  of  light  taxes  and  freedom  from 
paper  money,  long  famed  for  its  loyalty,  where  the  people 
had  nearly  doubled  in  twenty-one  years,  and  a  revenue  granted 
m  perpetuity,  with  a  fixed   (piit-rent,  put  aside   the   usual 
sources  of  colonial  strife— the  insurgent  spirit  of  freedom 
invaded  the  royal  authority  in  the  established  church;  and 
111  IT  IS,  just  as  Sherlock,  the  now  bishop  of  London,  was 
interceding  with  the  king  for  an  American  episcopate  which 
Bedford  and  Halifax  both  favored  as  essential  to  royal  author- 
ity, Virginia,  with  the  consent  of  Gooch,  its  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, transferred  by  law  the  patronage  of  all  the  livings  to 
the  vestries.     The  act  wa.g  included  among  the  revised  laws, 
and  met  with  the  king's  ai)prubation ;    but,  from  the  time 
that  its  pui-pose  wfus  perceived,  Sherlock  became  persuaded 
that  "Virginia,  formerly  an  orderly  province,   had  nothing 
more  at  heart  than  to  lessen  the  influence  of  the  crown." 

Letters  from  Pennsylvania  warned  the  ministers  that,  as 
the  "obstinate,  wrong-headed  assembly  of  Quakers"  in  that 
i)roviiice  "  pretended  not  to  be  accountable  to  his  majesty 
or  his  government,"  they  "might  in  time  apply  the  public 
money  to  purposes  injurious  to  the  crown  and  the  mother 
country." 

But  nowhere  did  popular  power  seem  so  deeply  or  dan- 
gerously seated  as  in  New  England,  where  every  village  was 
a  self-constituted  democracy,  whose  organization  had  received 
the  sanction  of  law  and  the  cuufirmation  of  the  king.  Espt^ 
cially  Boston,  whose  people  had  liberated  its  citizen  mariners 
^viien  impressed  by  a  British  admiral  in  their  hai-bor,  was 


I 


■  4 

"I'll 


If  t 


M-VI 


1  i 


riir 


1 1 


W' 


342     OVEllTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM,     ep.i.;  c„.  „. 

acoiisod  of  "a  robollions  insiiiTcctioii.'"  "Tluj  chiof  caiiHo," 
said  Sliirl'-y  *' t)f  tlio  niobbish  turn  of  ii  town  iiiiiuhitinl  by 
twentv  f-lioupind  persons  is  its  constitution,  by  wliich  tlio 
ina:'  ;;?emo  t  of  it  dovolvcs  on  tliu  po[)uiucu,  assoinblcd  iti 
their  ,0  V  n- 'leetings." 

Wi.'i  '■■  a.ssoml)ly  which  represented  the  towns  of  Miihr. . 
diiisotts  «-Jie  Wiiry  l):u'rister  declined  a  i-upturo.  Wiien,  in 
l^ov  r,',r.  the  le^nsliitiu-e  of  that  jn-oviiice,  jealous  from  a 
true  instinct,  reduced  his  salar^-  one  third  on  the  plea  of  pub- 
lic distress,  he  answered,  plaus'bly,  that  the  province  had 
doubled  its  pojMdatioii  within  t  venty  years;  had  in  that 
time  or<ifaiiized  within  its  limits  fivc-and-twiMity  new  towns ; 
and,  at  the  close  of  the  long  war,  was  less  in  di'bt  than  at  its 
beginning.  But  his  hopes  of  sure  emoluments  rested  in  Eu"-- 
land,  and  were  connected  with  the  success  of  the  applications 
from  New  York, 

The  conspiracy  against  tlie  colonics  extended  to  New 
Jersey.  In  December,  the  council  of  that  iH-ovince  found  it 
''  their  indispensalHe  duty  to  represent  to  iiis  majesty  tlio 
growing  rebellion  in  their  province."  The  conllict  for  land^ 
in  its  eastern  moiety,  where  Indian  title-deeds,  continued  by 
long  occu])ation,  were  pleaded  against  grants  of  an  English 
king,  led  to  confusion  which  the  ndes  of  the  English  law 
could  not  remedy.  The  people  of  hole  counties  could  not 
be  driven  from  their  homesteads  or  imprisoned  in  jails; 
Belcher,  the  temporizing  governor,  confessed  that  "  he  could 
not  bring  the  delegates  into  measures  for  suppressing  the 
wicked  spirit  of  rebellion."  The  proprietors,  who  had  pur- 
chased the  long-dormant  claim  to  a  large  part  of  the  province, 
made  common  cause  with  men  in  office,  invoked  Ih-itish  inter- 
position, and  accused  their  opponents  of  treasonably  denying 
the  king's  title  to  New  Jersey.  These  appeals  were  to  "  tally 
with  and  accredit  the  representation  from  New  York." 

From  the  first  moment  of  his  employment,  Halifax  stood 
forth  the  busy  champion  of  the  royal  authority  ;  and,  in 
Decendjer  1748,  his  earliest  official  words  of  any  import 
promised  "a  very  serious  consideration  on"  what  he  called 
"  the  just  prerogatives  of  the  cvowni,  and  those  defects  of  the 
constitution"  which  had  "spread  themselves  over  many  of 


m\m\ 


El'- 1. ;  on.  n. 


1749.         THE   PUKIKXiATIVE  Oil  THE   PAULIAMENT.  343 

tli(!  pliiiitationM,  and  wero  doHtnictivo  of  all  ordor  and  gov- 
LTiiiiiL-iit,;"  and  ho  ivsoivcd  on  instantly  elFcctini?  a  thorough 
clKin«;»",  ])y  the  agoncy  of  parliament.  While  awaiting  its  meet- 
ing, the  menaced  eniToaehments  of  Franee  ('(jually  claimed  jiis 
attention;  and  ho  deternuncd  to  secure  >« ova  Scotia  and  the 
Ohio  valley. 

The  region  l)eyond  the  Alleglianies  had  as  yet  110  Knglish 
settlement,  excH-pt,  perhaps  a  ^'^'W  seatterefl  cabins  Iti  western 
Virginia.     The   Indians  son'.'i  of  lake  Erie  and  in  the  Ohio 
valley  wore,  in  the  recent  war,  friendly  to  the  English,  and 
were  imited  to  I'enusylvania  I)y  a  treaty  of  commerce.     The 
tiaders,  chiefly  from  Pennsylvania,  who  strolled  from  triho  to 
trilx',  were  with,  nt  fixed  places  of  abode,  but  drew  many  In- 
dians (.ver  the  lake  to  trade  in  skins  and  furs.     The  colony  of 
New  York,  through  the  Six  iXations,  might  comnuvnd'the 
Canadian  ])asses  to  the  Ohio  valley;   the  grant  to  William 
Pciui  actually  included  a  part  of  it ;  but  Virginia  claimed  to 
1)01111(1  its  dominion  on  the  north-west  by  Lake  Erie.     To  se- 
cure Ohio  for  the  Englisli  world,  Lawrence  Washington,  of 
Virginia,  Augustus  Washington,  and  their  associates,  pnjposcd 
a  colony  beyond  the  Alleglu-nies.     "The  country  west  of  tiie 
great  mountains  is  the  centre  of  the  British  dominions,"  wrote 
Halifax  and  his  colleagues,  who  were  inflamed  with  the  hope 
of  recovering  it  by  some  sort  of  occupation  ;  and  the  favor  of 
Henry  Pelham,  the   lirst  I  )rd  of  the  treasury,  with  the  re- 
newed instance  of  the  board  of  trade,  obtaineti,  in  March  1749, 
the  kings  instructions  to  the  governor  of  Virginia  to  grati  to 
Jolin  IIanl)ury  and  his  associates  in  Maryland  and  Virginia 
five  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  between  the  Monongahehi 
and  the  Kanawha,  or  on  the  northern  margin  of  the  Ohio. 
The  company  Avere  to  i)ay  no  (piit-rent  for  t(;n  years,  within 
seven  years  to  colonize  at  least  one  hundred  families,  to  select 
immediately  two  fifths  of  their  territory,  and  at  their  owi  cost 
to  l)uild  and  garrison  a  fort.     Thomas  Lee,  president  of  the 
council  of  Virginia,  and  Robert  Dinwiddle,  a  native  of  Scot- 
land, surveyor-general  for  the  southern  colonies,  were  shai-e- 
holders. 

Aware  of  these  designs,  France  anticipated  England.     In 
i  719,  La  Galissonierc,  revolving  great  designs  of  French  em- 


■  i 


m 


i: 


!i    ! 


i 
I 


i 


4' 


'I       i 


f  I  -  '  ii 


lb 


r-i 


344     OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


EP.  I. ;  en.  II. 


pire  in  America,  sent  Celoron  de  Bienville,  with  three  hmirh-ed 
men,  to  the  valley  of  the  Ohio.     On  its  southern  banlc,  oppo- 
site the  point  of  an  island,  and  near  the  junction  of  a  river 
that  officer  buried,  at  the  foot  of  a  primeval  rod-oak,  a  plate 
of  load  with   the  inscription  that   the  country  belonged  to 
France ;  and  he  nailed  the  lilies  of  the  Bourbons  to  a  forest 
tree,  in  token  of  possession.     "  I  am  going  down  the  river  " 
said  he  to  Indians  at  Logstown,  "  to  scourge  home  our  chil- 
dren, the  Miamis  and  the  AVyandots  "  and  he  forbade  all 
trading  with  the  English.     "  The  Lmd,.  are  ours,"  rophed  the 
Indians ;  and  they  claimed  freedom  of  commerce.    The  Freucli 
emissary  proceeded  to  the  towns  of  the  Miamis,  expelled  the 
English  traders,  and  by  letter  requested  Hamilton,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Pennsylvania,  to  prevent  all  further  intnision.    But 
the  Indians  murmured,  as  he  buried  plates  at  the  mouth  of 
every  remarkable  creek.     "  We  know,"  they  said,  "  it  is  done 
to  stea^  onr  country  from  us;"  and  they  resolved  to  "go  to 
the  Onondaga  council "  for  protection. 

On  the  north-east,  the  well-informed  La  Galissoniere  took 
advantage  of  the  gentle  and  unsuspecting  character  of  the 
French  Acadians,  and  of  the  doubt  that  existed  respecting 
occupancy  and  ancient  titles.     In  1710,  when  Port  Eoyal^ 
now  Annapolis,  was  vacated,  the  fort  near  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  John's  remained  to  France.     The  Enghsh  liad  no  settle- 
ment on  that  river ;  and  tliough  they  had,  on  appeal  to  their 
tribuTuils,  exercised  some  sort  of  jurisdiction,  it  had  not  been 
clearly  recognised  l^y  th  -  few  inhabitants,  and  had  always  l)cen 
denied  by  the  French  g.n-ernmeut.     It  began  to  be  insinuated 
that  the  ceded  Acadia  was  l>ut  a  part  of  the  peninsula  lyiug 
upon  the  sea  between  Cape  Fourches  and  Cape  Canso.     Tlie 
Abb6  La  Loutrc,  missionary  and  curate  of  Messagouche,  now 
Fort  Luu-rouce,   wliidi   is  within  tie  jMininsula,  fonried  tlie 
plan,  with  tlie  aid  of  La  (ialissoniere  and  the  court  of  France, 
to  entice  the  Acadians  from  their  ancient  dwelling-i)lace.s,  and' 
plant  them  on  the  frontier  as  a  barrier  against  the  English. 

But,  even  before  the  peace,  Sl.irley  had  represented  that 
the  inhabitants  near  the  Isthmus,  Wm^  French  and  Catholic, 
should  bo  removed  into  .s(jme  other  of  tlie  British  colonies, 
and  that  Protestant  settlers  should  occupy  their  lands.     From 


-.    ^ 


^' 


1749.        THE  PREROGATxVE  OR  THE  PARLIAMENT.  345 

this  atrocious  proposal,  Newcastle,  who  was  eniel  only  from 
frivolity,  did  not  witbliold  his  approbation;  but  Bedford,  his 
more  humane  successor,  sought  to  secure  the  entire  obedience 
of  the  French  inhabitants  by  intermixing  with  them  colonists 
of  English  descent. 

The  execution  of  this  design,  which  the  dulce  of  Cumber- 
land, Pelham,  and  Henry  Fox  assisted  in  maturing,  devolved 
on  Halifax.     Invitations  went  through  Europe  to  invite  Prot- 
estants from  the  continent  to  eniigrate  to  the  British  colonies. 
The  good-will  of  New  England  was  encouraged  by  care  for 
its  lisheries;    and   American   whalemen,   stimulated  by  the 
promise  of  an  equal  bounty  with  the  Jiritish,  learned  to  fol- 
low their  game  among  the  icebergs  of  the  Greenland  seas. 
IJot  the  main  burden  of  securing  Nova  Scotia  fell  on  the 
British  treasury.     While  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts, 
through  their  agent  in  England,  sought  to  prevent  the  French 
from  possessing  any  harbor  whatever  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  or 
west  of  it  on  the  Atlantic,  proposals  were  made,  in  March 
17iO,  to  disbanded  officers  and  soldiers  and  marines,  to  accept 
and  occupy  lands  in  Acadia ;  and,  before  the  end  of  June, 
more  thau  fourteen  hundred  persons,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  British  parliament,  were  conducted  by  Colonel  Ed^vard 
Cornwalhs  into  Chebucto  harbor.    There,  on  a  cold  and  sterile 
soil,  covered  to  the  water's  edge  with  one  continued  forest  of 
spruce  and  pine,  whose  thick  underw(wd  and  gloomy  shade 
hid  rocks  and  the  rudest  wilds,  with  no  clear  spot  to  be  seen 
or  heard  of,  rose  the  first  to^^^l  of  English  origin  east  of  the 
Penobscot.     From  the  minister  who  -mparted  efficiency  to 
the  e!iteri)rise,  it  took  the  name  of  Halifax.     Before  winter 
three  hundred  houses  were  covered  in.    At  Minas,  now  Lower 
Horton,  a  I)lock-house  was  raised,  and  fortified  by  a  trench 
and  a  palisade ;  a  fort  at  Pcsacjuid,  now  Windsor,  protected 
the  comnmnications  with  Halifax.     These,  with  Annapolis  on 
the  Bay  of  Fundy,  secured  the  peninsula. 

The  ancient  inhabitants  had,  in  1730,  taken  an  oatli  of 
hdehty  to  tho  English  king,  as  sovereign  of  Acadia;  and  were 
pro.uised  indulgence  in  "the  exercise  of  their  reli^vi,,,,.  and 
exemption  from  bearing  arms  against  the  French  or  Indians." 
'hey  were  known  as  the  French  Neutrals.     Their  hearts  ^vere 


i      / 


it       ■  I; 

'!  f 


|:^  ^M 


'    ,i       U 


340      OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


EI'-  I.;  cii.  II. 


fi     I- 


I 


i;    i    i 


m 


R-'n 


still  with  Franco,  luul  tlieir  rcligiDU  inado  thoiii  a  part  of  the 
(lioccso  of  (Quebec!.     Of  a  sucldou  it  was  proclaimed  to  tlioir 
deputies  convened  at    Halifax    that    Eii«,dish   conunissionerH 
would  repair  to  their  villa«^es,  and  tender  to  tliein,  uncondi- 
tionally, the  oath  of  allegiance.     They  could  not  pledge  them- 
selves before  Heaven  to  join  in  war  against  the  land  of  their 
origin  and  their  love ;  and,  iji  a  letter  signed  by  a  thousand  of 
their  men,  they  pleaded  rather  for  leave  to  sell  their  lands  and 
olfects,  and  abandon  the  peninsula  for  new  homes,  which  France 
would  ])rovide.     Ihit  ('orinvallis  would  offer  no  option  but  be- 
tween unconditional  allegiance  and  the  coniiscation  of  all  their 
property.     "It  is  for  me,"  said  he,  "to  c<;)mmand  and  to  be 
obeyed;"  and  he  looked  to  the  board  of  trade  for  further  in- 
structions. 

With  the  l\[icm;ic  Indians,  who,  at  the  instigation  of  La 
Loutre,  the  missionary,  united  with  other  tribes  to  harass  the 
infant  settlements,  the  English  governor  dealt  still  more  sum- 
marily, "The  land  on  which  you  sleep  is  mine:"  such  was 
the  message  of  the  implacable  tribe ;  "  I  sjjrung  out  of  it,  as 
the  grass  does;  I  was  born  on  it  from  sire  to  sou;  it  is  mine 
forever."  8o  the  council  at  Halifax  voted  all  the  poor  red 
men  that  dwelt  in  the  peninsula  to  be  "so  many  banditti,  ruf- 
iians,  or  rebels;"  and,  by  its  authority,  Cornwallis,  "to  brin"' 
the  rascals  to  reason,"  olfered  for  every  one  of  ihem,  "taken 
or  killed,"  ten  guineas,  to  be  paid  on  producing  the  savage  oi 
"his  scalp."  I5ut  the  sdurce  of  this  disorder  was  the  unde- 
Hned  state  of  possession  between  the  Fun)pean  coaqjetitirs 
for  North  America. 

Meaiitime,  La  Galissoniere,  having  surrended  his  govern- 
ment to  the  more  pacific  La  Jompiiere.  repaired  to  iM-ance,  to 
be  employed  on  the  coimuission  for  adjusdng  the  Ameiicaii 
Ik  imdaries.  La  Joncpiiere  saw  the  imminent  danger  of  a  m-w 
w.i:-.  ,!;i.i,  like  Hedford.  woiUd  have  shunned  ^lostilitie-;  init 
Ids  "nsti  Mictions  from  the  Froich  ministry,  altiiou<>:h  .Ucydid 
n(»t  i-e.piire  advances  beyond  the  isthmus,  compel knl  him  to 
attem;*t  contining  the  English  within  the  peninsula  of  Acadri. 
Thus,  while  France,  with  the  unity  -f  .i  despotic  central 
po\.  er,  was  employing  all  its  strength  in  f/anada  to  uiake  good 
its  cl."'ms  to  an  extended  frontier,  Halifax  signalized  his  coming 


1710.         THE  PREROGATIVE  OR  THE  TARLIAMENT.  347 

ifo  oflicc  by  plnjit 


info  oriK'c  by  pl.-uiting  Protestant  emi<]^rants  in  Nova  Scotia,  as 
a  harrier  against  cncroaclimcnts  on  the  north-east ;  and  hy  grant- 
iiig  liiiids  for  a  Virginia  occupation  of  hotli  banks  of  tlio  Ohio. 
With  still  greater  impetuosity,  he  ruslied  toward  a  sohition  of 
tl'o  aecunmlated  difficulties  in  the  administration  of  the  colo- 


nies. 


Tlie  boiird  of  trade,  so  soon  as  Halifax  had  become  its 
liead,  i-evived  and  earnestly  promoted  the;  scheme  of  sti-cngth- 
eiiing  the  authority  of  the  prerogative  by  a  general  act  of  "the 
IJiitish  parliament.  At  its  instance,  on  the  third  day  of  March 
1T4!».  under  the  prctex*'-,  of  suppressing  the  flagvant  evils  of 
colonial  [)aper  money,  the  disappointed  Horatio  Afalpole,  who 
for  nearly  thirty  years  had  not  aKvays  successful ly  struggled, 
as  iniditor-genci-al  of  the  colonies,  to  gain  a  sinecure  allowmco 
of  live  per  i  cnt  on  all  colonial  revenues,  reported  a  bill  to 
overrule  charters,  and  to  make  all  orders  by  the  king,  or  under 
his  authority,  the  highest  law  of  America.  In  the  reign  of 
Henry  Vlll.,  parliament,  surrendering  only  the  liberties  of  its 
own  constituents,  sanctioned  "  what  a  king,' by  his  royal  power, 
might  do;"  and  gave  the  energy  of  law  to  his  proclamations 
and  ordinances.  Halifax  and  his  board  invited  the  Jiritish 
piu-liament  to  sequester  the  liberties  of  other  communities, 
and  transfer  them  to  the  J3ritish   '.ro\m. 

The  people  of  Connecti(!ut,  through  their  agent,  Eliakim 
Palmer,  i)rotested  against  "the  unusual  and  extraordinary" 
attempt,  "so  repugnant  to  the  laws  and  constitution"  of  (Jreat 
Britain,  and  to  their  own  "inestimable  privileges"  and  char- 
ter, "  of  l)eing  governed  by  laws  of  their  own  making."  By 
their  birthright,  by  the  ]wrils  of  their  ancestors,  by  the  sanc- 
tity of  royal  faith,  by  their  own  affectionate  duty*  and  zeal, 
and  devotion  of  their  lives  and  fortmies  to  their  king  and 
country,  they  remonstrated  against  the  bill.  PeunsyTvania 
and  Piiode  Island  pleaded  their  patents,  and  remmded  ])ar- 
lianient  of  the  tribute  already  levied  on  them  by  the  monop- 
oly of  their  commerce.  For  Massachusetts,  William  Bollan, 
through  "the  very  good-natured  -ord  Baltimore,"  re])resented 
that  the  bill  virtually  inclsded  all  future  orders  of  all  future 
I'rincos,  however  re[)ugnant  they  might  l)e  to  the  constitution 
of  ( Jreat  Britain,  or  of  the  colonies ;  thus  abrogating  for  the 


— ^ 

flp 

11  i 

i'  ■-.' 

5  <m    ' 

1f 

1 

v« 

,1    i    ■  .'If 


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V\    ''■' 


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I. 


348     OVERTHROW  OF  TOE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


KP.  I. ;  cu.  u. 


people  of  Massacliusetts  their  common  rights  as  Englislunon 
not  less  than  their  eliarte^  privileges.  The  agent  of  South 
Carolina  cautiously  intimated  that,  as  obedience  to  instructions 
was  already  due  from  the  gove.  \ors,  Avhose  commissions  de- 
pended on  the  royal  pleasure,  the  deliberative  rights  of  the 
assemblies  were  the  only  colonial  salqmard  against  unlimited 
authority. 

"  Venerating  the  British  constitution,  as  established  at  the 
revolution,"  Onslow,  the  speaker  of  the  house  of  commons, 
believed  that  parliament  had  power  to  tax  America,  but  not 
to  delegate  that  power ;  and,  by  his  order,  the  objections  to 
the  proposed  measure  were  spread  at  length  on  the  journal. 
The  board  of  trade  wavered,  and  in  April  consented,  reluc- 
tantly, "  to  drop  for  the  present  and  reserve  "  the  clauses  ;  hut 
it  continued  to  cherish  the  spirit  that  dictated  them,  till  it 
ceased  to  exist. 

At  the  same  time  Massachusetts  was  removing  every  mo- 
tive to  interfere  with  its  currency  by  abolishing  its  paper 
money.  That  province  had  deinanded,  as  a  right,  the  reim- 
bursement of  its  expenses  for  the  capture  of  Louisburg.  Its 
claim,  as  of  right,  Avas  denied ;  for  its  jieople,  it  was  said,  were 
the  subjects,  a)id  not  th(>  allies,  of  England;  but  the  requisite 
appropriation  was  made  by  the  ecpiity  of  parliament.  Massa- 
chusetts had  already,  in  Jamiary  17-10,  by  the  urgency  of 
Hutchinson,  voted  that  irs  pubhc  notes  should  be  redeemed 
with  the  expected  remittances  from  the  royal  exchequer. 
Twice  in  the  preceding  year  it  had  invited  a  convention  of 
the  neighboring  colonies  to  suppress  jointly  the  fatal  paper 
currency ;  but,  finding  concert  impossible,  it  proceeded  alone. 
As  the  bills  had  depreciated,  and  were  no  longer  in  the  hands 
of  the  first  holders,  it  was  insisted  that  to  redeem  them  at 
their  original  value  would  impose  a  new  tax  on  the  first 
holders  themselves ;  and,  tiierefore,  forty-five  shillings  of  the 
old  tenor,  or  eleven  shillings  and  threepence  of  the  new  eniis- 
i-ioii,  were,  with  the  approbation  of  the  king  in  council,  re- 
deemed by  a  Spanish  milled  dollar.  Thus  Massachusetts  be- 
came the  "'hard-money  colony"  of  the  Xorth. 

The  p.an  for  enforcing  all  royal  orders  in  America  by  the 
act  of  the  British  parliament  had  hardly  been  abandoned  when 


i;  but 
till  it 


1749.         THE  PREROGATIVE  OR  THE  PARLIAMENT.  34.J 

the  loyalty  and  vi^lance  of  Massacliusetts  were  perverted  to 
further  the  intrigues  against  its  liberty.  In  April  1749,  its 
assembly,  M'hich  held  that  Nova  Scotia'  included  all  the  conti- 
nent east  of  New  England,  represented  to  the  king  "the  inso- 
lent intrusions"  of  France  on  their  territory, advised  that  "tho 
neighboring  provinces  should  be  informed  of  the  common  dan- 
ger^'  and  begged  "tliat  no  breach  might  be  made  in  any  of  the 
territories  of  the  crown  on  the"  American  "continent."  On 
transmitting  this  address  Shirley  developed  his  system.  To 
the  duke  of  Jiedford  he  recommended  the  erecting  and  gar- 
risoning of  frontier  "fortresses,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Idngs  engineers  and  officers."  "A  tax  for  their  mainte- 
nance," he  urged,  "should  be  laid  by  parliament  upon  the 
colonies,  without  which  it  will  not  be  done."  From  the  pros- 
perous condition  of  America,  he  argued  that  "making  the 
British  subjects  on  this  continent  contribute  toward  ^heir 
common  security  could  not  be  thought  laying  a  burden;"  and 
he  cited  the  acts  of  trade,  and  the  duty  laid  on  foreign'sugars 
imported  into  the  northern  colonics,  as  precedents  that  estab- 
lished the  reasonableness  of  Ins  proposal. 

Sliirley's  associates  in  JS"e^v  York  were  e(pially  persevering. 
Tlie  seventh  day  of  May  1749,  brought  to  them  "the  agreea- 
Ijle  news  that  all  went  flowiugly  on"  as  they  had  desired. 
Knowing  that  Bedford,   Dorset,  and  Halifax   had   espoused 
their  cause,  they  convened  the  legislature  ;  l)ut  it  was  in  vain. 
"The  faithfid  representatives  of  the  people,"  thus  spoke  the 
osserably  of  New  York  in  July,  "can  never  recede  from  the 
method  of  an  annual  support."     "  I  know  well,"  rejoined  the 
governor,  "  the  present  sentiments  of  his  majesty's  ministers  ; 
and  you  might  have  guessed  at  them  by  the  bill  lately  brought 
into  parliament  for  enforcing  the  king's  instructions.     Con- 
sider," ho  adds,  "the  great  liberties  you  are  indulged  with. 
Consider,  likewise,  what  may  be  the  consequences  should  our 
inother  country  suspect  that  you  design  to  lessen  the  preroga- 
tive of  the  crowji  in  the  plantations.     The  Romans  did  not 
allow  the  same  privileges  to  their  colonies  which  the  other 
citizens  enjoyed ;   and  you  know  in  what  manner  the  repub- 
lic (>{  Holland  governs  her  colonies.     Endeavor,  then,  to  show 
yoi;r  great  thankfulness  for  the  great  privileges  you  enjoy." 


(   \  i. 


.  I  I 


Kll 


f."; 


'4  ?       1-,  f 


350      OVEirrilliOW  of  the  colonial  system,     ki-.  i.  ;  ct.  n. 


t- 


liilM 


I  * 


Till'  rcprosontativos  julIiiTcd  unanimously  to  tlioir  resolu- 
tions, i)Ii'a(liii<jf  that  "goviTiiors  aro  generally  entire  straiigerH 
to  the  peopU'  they  are  sent  to  govern;  they  seldoin  regiU'd  the 
welfare  of  the  |)eoi)le  otherwise  than  as  they  ean  make  it  suh- 
Hervient  to  their  own  i)arti('ular  interest;  and,  as  they  know 
tile  time  of  their  eontiiiuanee  in  their  governments  to  he  ini- 
cortain,  all  methods  are  used,  and  all  engines  set  to  work,  to 
raise  estates  ti»  themselves.  Should  the  [)ul)lic.  moneys  he  left 
to  their  disposition,  what  can  be  expected  but  the  grossest 
nusai)plieation,  under  various  pretences,  which  will  never  ho 
wanting^'  To  this  unanimity  the  governor  could  only  oj) 
pose  his  determination  ''most  earnestly"  to  inv(.ke  the  atten- 
tion of  the  ministry  and  the  king  to  ''their  proceedings;" 
and  he  ])rorogued  and  then  dissolved  tlio  assembly. 

'J\)  make  the  apjjcal  to  the  ministry  more  eiroctive,  Shir- 
ley, who  had  obtained  l(>avi>  to  go  to  England,  and  M'hose  suc- 
cess in  every  point  was  believed  to  be  certain,  before  emhark- 
ing  received  from  (\)ldeu  an  olaborjite  argument,  in  wliicli 
revenue  to  the  crown,  independent  of  the  American  people, 
M'as  urged  as  indisjiensable ;  and,  to  obtain  it,  "the  most  pru- 
di'ut  method,"  it  was  insisted,  "would  be  by  ai)plication  to 
parliament." 

I'm  I,  before  Shirley  arrived  in  Europe,  (he  ministry  was 
already  won  to  his  designs.  On  the  lirst  day  of  June,  the 
board  of  trade  had  been  recruited  by  a  young  man  gifted  with 
"a  thousand  talents,"  the  daring  and  indefatigable  Charles 
Townshcnd.  A  younger  son  of  Lord  Townshend,  and)itions, 
capable  of  unwearied  labor,  bold,  and  somewhat  extravagant 
in  his  style  of  eloipience,  yet  surjxissed  as  a  debater  only  by 
jNIurray  aiul  Pitt,  he  was  introduced  to  office  through'  the 
commission  for  the  colonies.  His  restless  ability  olitaiiied 
sway  at  the  board;  Halifax  cherished  him  as  a  favorite ;  and 
the  parliament  soon  looked  to  him  as  •>  the  greatest  nuister  of 
American  all'airs." 

How  tt)  regulate  charters  and  colonial  governments,  and 
provide  an  Americau  civil  list  independent  of  American  legis- 
latures, was  the  earliest  as  Avell  as  the  latest  political  problem 
which  he  attemi)ted  to  solve.  At  timt  time,  ^Murray,  as  crown 
lawyer,  ruled  the  cabinet  on  questions  of  legal  right ;  Dorset, 


mi).        THE  rUEROGATIVK  OR  THE  rARLIAMENT. 


i>n| 


60 


till!  fiitlior  of  Lord  Gcor^o  rjontinin,  was  president  of  the 
coiiiicil;  Ljtteltoii  and  (J(jor<jf(;  (hviivillo  were  of  flu.'  treasury 
board;  and  Handwicli,  raised  \)y  his  hold  on  the  duke  of  IJod- 
ford,  presided  at  the  admiralty;  Halifax,  Charles  Townshend, 
and  their  collea<,nies,  were  Inisy  with  remodel lin«,'  American 
constitutions;  while  IJedford,  as  secretary  of  state  for  the 
soiitlirrn  department,  was  tin;  organ  of  communication  be- 
tween the  hoard  of  trade  and  the  (tro^v^^. 

These  are  the  men  who  proposed  to  reconcile  the  discrep- 
ancy between  the  legal  pretensions  of  the  metropolis  and  the 
actual  condition  of  the  colonies.  In  vain  did  they  resolve  to 
fashion  America  into  new  modes  of  being.  The  infant  repub- 
lics were  not  like  marble  from  the  <piarry,  which  the  artist  may 
shape  according  to  his  design  ;  they  resend)led  living  })lants, 
which  obey  an  indwelling  necessity  without  consciousness  of 
will,  and  unfold  sinmltaneously  their  whole  existence  and  the 
nhliiuents  of  all  their  parts,  harmonious,  beautiful,  and  com- 
])leto  in  every  period  of  their  growth. 

These  British  American  colonies  were  the  best  trophy  of 
modern  civilization ;  on  them,  for  the  next  forty  years,  rests 
the  chief  interest  in  the  history  of  man. 


^^  -"jf  rm 

Wf 

•.I.   1 

^1  ^ 

;f:|# 

I        !  1     ' 
i  I 


'I  i 


I        '      ■' 


iM 


352 


TUE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA.   kp.  i.  ;  ou.  m. 


)|:' 


iKiii'^'i! 


-ivW!' 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   EXPLOR^ITION   OF   OHIO.       HENRY   PELHAJl's   ADMINieTRATION 

CONTINUED. 

1749-1751. 

On  the  twelfth  of  July  1740,  the  ministers  of  state  assem- 
bled at  the  board  of  trade,  and  deliberated,  from  seven  in  the 
evening  till  one  the  next  morning,  on  the  political  aspect  of  the 
plantations.  The  opmions  of  Sir  Dudley  Eyder  and  WiHiara 
Murray  were  before  them.  They  ao^reeil  that  "  all  accounts 
concurred  in  representing  New  Jersey  as  in  a  state  of  disobedi- 
ence to  law  and  government,  attended  with  circumstances 
which  manifested  a  disposition  to  revolt  from  dependence  on 
the  crown.  While  the  governor  was  so  absolutely  dependent 
on  the  assembly,  order  could  not  possibly  be  restored."  And 
they  avowed  it  as  their  -'fundamental "  nile  of  American  gov- 
ermnent  that  the  colonial  officers  of  the  king  should  have  "some 
appointment  from  home." 

^  "  Drink  Lord  Halifax  in  a  bumper,"  were  the  words  of 
Clinton  as  he  read  his  letters  from  England.  The  duke  of 
Bedford  promised  vigorous  support  in  maintaining  the  long's 
delegated  authority ;  and  for  the  rest  of  his  life  remained  time 
to  his  promise,  not  knowing  that  he  was  the  dupe  of  profligate 
cupidity. 

In  a  document  designed  for  the  eye  of  Halifax,  Colden 
hastened  to  coutirm  the  purpose.  Of  popular  sway  "  the  in- 
crease in  th(!  northern  colonies  was  immeasurable."  Royalty 
would  have  in  Xew  York  but  "the  outward  appearance "  of 
authority,  till  a  governor  and  "proper  judges"  should  receive 
"  independent  salan'es."  "  I  do  not  imagine,"  he  wrote,  in  No- 
vember 1740,  "that  any  assembly  will  be  induced  to  give  up 


INieTRATION 


17'1 9-1750. 


THE  EXPLOUATION  OF  OUIO. 


353 


tlio  power,  of  which  tlioy  are  all  ko  fond,  hy  granting  duties  for 
any  number  of  years.     The  authority  of  parliament  must  be 
niade  use  of,  and  the  duties  on  wine  and  AVest  liidia  connnodi- 
tiej  be  made  general  for  all  North  America."     "  The  nunistry, 
he  added,  "are  not  aware  of  the  number  of  men  in  North 
America  able  to  bear  arms,  and  daily  in  the  use  of  them.     It 
liL'comes  necessary  that  the  colonies'  be  early  looked  into,  in 
time  of  peace,  and  regulated."     .Morris,  the  chief  justice  of 
New  Jersey,  interested  in  lands  in  that  province,  and  trained 
by  his  father  to  a  zeal  for  aristocratic  ascendency,  was  much 
listened  to.     As  a  source  of  revenue,  William  Douglas,  in  Eos- 
ton,  a  Scottish  physician,  pul)licly  proposed  "a  stamp  duty 
upon  all  instruments  used  in  law  affairs ; "  but  the  suggestion 
had  nothing  of  novelty.    We  have  seen  that,  in  1728,  Sir  Will- 
iam Keith  had  advised  extending,  "  by  act  of  parliament,  the 
duties  upon  parchment  and  stamps  to  America ;  "  and,  eleven 
years  later,  the  ad\-ice  had  been  repeated  by  merchants  in  Lon- 
duu,  with  solicitations  that  won  for  it  the  consideration  of  the 
ministry. 

The  indefatigable  Shirley,  who  had  not  prevailed  with  Pel- 
ham,  became  the  eulogist  and  principal  adviser  of  Cumberland, 
of  Bedford,  and  of  Halifax.     Should  Massachusetts  reduce  hk 
emoluments,  he  openly  threatened  to  appeal  to  "  an  episcopal 
interest,  and  make  himself  independent  of  the  assembly  for 
any  future  support."     The  ]mblic  mind  in  that  province,  es- 
pecially in  Boston,   was  earnestly  inquiring  into   the   active 
powers  of  man,  to  deduce  from  them  the  right  to  uncontrolled 
I'l'iniry,  as  the  only  security  against  religious  and  civil  bond- 
ajie.     Of  that  cause  the  champion  was  Jonathan  Mayhew,  off- 
sprhig  of  i)nrest  ancestors,  "  sanctified  "  from  childhood,  a  pupil 
of  I ,  e^\•  England's  Cambridge.    "  Instructed  in  voutli,"  thus  he 
spoke  of  himself,  "  in  the  doctrines  of  civil  liberty,  as  they 
were  taught  by  such  men  as  Plato,  Demosthenes,  Cicero,  and 
otiiers,  among  the  ancients  ;  and  such  as  Sidnev  and  Milton, 
bocke  and   Iloadly,  among  the  moderns,  I  Hke'd  them;,  and 
liavnig  'earned  from  the  holy  scrijitures  that  wis,.-,  brave,  and 
virtn  as  men  ^vere  always  friends  to  liberty,  that  (lod  gave  the 
Israelites  a  king  in  his  anger,  because  the^  had  not  sense  and 
virtue  enough  to  like  a  free  commonwealth,  and  that  where  the 

VOL.    II.— 23 


f 

1                  .V 

St- 

1     ,      ' 

11 


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If 

i 

1  |:^  v^^ 

1 

. 


'i   1 

i:;  :  i  '    ■ 

f 

854 


TIIE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA.       kp.  i.  ;  on.  lu. 


spirit  of  tho  Lord  in  thoro  is  liberty,  tliis  made  mo  conchulo 
that  freedom  is  a  great  blessing."  Vnnn  early  life,  Mayhisw 
took  to  his  lieart  the  right  of  private  judgment,  eliiiging  to  it 
as  to  his  religion ;  tnith  and  justice  he  revered  as  realities 
whieh  every  Ini man  being  had  capacity  to  discern;  the  duty 
of  each  individual  to  in([nire  and  judge  he  deduced  from  tlio 
constitution  of  man,  and  held  to  be  as  universal  as  reason  itself. 
At  once  becoming  revolutionary,  he  scoffed  at  receiving  opin- 
ions because  his  forefathers  had  embraced  them ;  and,  push- 
ing the  prineijile  of  Protestantism  ro  its  universal  expres- 
sion, he  sent  forth  the  American  mind  to  do  its  work,  dis- 
burdened of  prejudices.  The  ocean  which  it  had  crossed  had 
broken  the  trail  of  tradition,  and  it  was  now  to  iind  paths  of 
its  own. 

In  Jamiary  1750,  the  still  youthful  Mayhew,  alarmed  at 
the  menaced  encroachments  of  power,  summoned  every  lover 
of  truth  and  of  mankind  to  bear  a  part  in  the  defensive  war 
against  "  tyranny  and  priestcraft."  From  the  pulpit  and  through 
the  press  he  reproved  the  impious  bargain  "  between  the  scep- 
ti-e  and  tho  suq^lice  ; "  he  preached  resistance  to  "  the  first 
small  begimiings  of  civil  tyranny,  lest  it  should  swell  to  a  tor- 
rent and  deluge  empircFi."  "  The  doctrines,"  he  cried,  "  of  the 
divine  right  of  kings  and  non-resistance  are  as  fabulous  and 
chimerical  as  the  most  absurd  reveries  of  ancient  or  modern 
visionaries."  "  If  those  who  bear  tho  title  of  civil  rulers  do 
not  perform  the  duty  of  civil  rulers,  if  they  injure  and  oppress, 
they  have  not  the  least  pretence  to  be  honored  or  o])eyed.  If 
the  common  safety  and  utility  would  not  be  ]>romoted  by  sub- 
mission to  the  government,  there  is  no  motive  for  submission ;" 
disobedience  becomes  "lawful  and  glorious,"  "not  a  crime, but 
a  duty." 

The  words  of  "AEayhew  were  uttered  at  a  time  when  "the 
plantations  engaged  the  whole  thoughts  of  the  men  in  power," 
who  were  persuaded  that  all  America  was  struggling  to  achieve 
a  perfect  legislative  independence,  and  that  New  Jersey  at 
least  Avas  in  a  state  of  rebellion.  At  a  great  council  in  Febni- 
ary  1750,  the  board  of  trade  was  commanded  to  propose  such 
measures  as  would  restore  and  establish  the  prerogative,  in  its 
utmost  extent,  throughout  the  colonies.     "Bedford,  the  lords 


1760. 


THE   EXPLOUATION   OF  OHIO. 


855 


(,f  tiwlc,  the  pvhy  couuci!,"  all  had  American  affairs  «  much  ar, 
heart,"  a.ul  rcfiolved  to  -ivo  oa.s.>  to  colonial  goveniors  and 
"their  Hucceasons  forever."     The  plea  for  the  interpoBition  of 
the  supreme  legislature  spran-  from  the  apprehension  that  a 
separate  empire  was  f<.rmin^..     ''  Fools,"  said  the  -Ider  proi)rie- 
tary,  I'enn,  "are  always  tellin^r  their  fears  that  the  colonies 
vv.ll  set  up  for  themselves;"  and  their  alarm  was  increased  by 
Franklin  s  plan  for  an  acad.niy  at  Philadelphia.     Fresh  impor- 
tiiiiities  succeeded  each  other  from   America;  and,  when   Bed- 
ford sent  assurances  of  his  purpose  to  su])port  the  royal  author- 
ity, ho  was  referred  hy  the  crown  officers  of  New  York  to  the 
papers  in  the  office  of  the  hoard  of  ti-ade  rehitiiifr  to  Hunter 
who,  from  1710  to  1 7U,  had  struggled  in  that  pr.  .vince  for  the 
pron.gative.     Under  the  sancti<.n  of  that  precedent,  (Jlinton 
ur^^'d,  in  Mareh,  that  "  it  was  al.solutely  necessary  to  cheek  the 
lusolenco  of  faction  hy  a  powerful  interposition  ;  "  and  he,  too 
advised  imposts  on  wine  and  AVest  India  i)roduce.     "  These  if 
granted  by  parliament,  ^^^.ul,l  bo  sufficient  for  supporting  the 
civil  list;  li  made  general  over  all  the  colonies,  they  could  bo 
in  no  shape  prejudicial  to  trade."     He  insisted  that' the  propo- 
sition contained  its  own  evidence  of  being  for  the  service  of 
tlie  king.     "  This  province,"  ho  repeated  in  April,  "  by  its  ex- 
ample, greatly  affects  all  the  other  colonies.     Parliament,  on  a 
true  representation  of  the  state  of  the  plantations,  must 'think 
it  their  duty  to  make  the  royal  officers  less  dei.endent  on  the 
assuiubhes,  which  may  be  easily  done  by  granting  to  the  kin^^ 
the  same  duties  and  imi)osts  that,  in  the  plantatioi.  j,  are  usually 
granted  from  year  to  year." 

Neither  Bedford,  nor  Halifax,  nor  Charles  Tovvnishend 
could,  of  a  sudden,  overcome  the  usages  and  policy  of  more 
t''"iahalf-centiiry;  but  new  developments  were  easily  given 
fotlie  commercial  and  restrictive  system.  That  the  colonies 
imght  be  tilled  with  slav(>s,  who  should  neither  trouble  CIreat 
bnta.n  with  fears  of  encouraging  political  independence,  nor 
compete  in  their  industry  with  British  workshops,  nor  leave 
tlKMi-  employers  the  entire  security  that  might  prepare  a  revolt, 
liberty  to  trade— saddest  concession  of  freedom— to  and  from 
any  part  of  Africa,  between  Sal  lee,  in  South  Bari)ary,  and  the 
Ciipe  of  Good  Hope,  was,  in  1750,  extended  to  all  the  subjects 


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356 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA.        ep.  i.  ;  on.  ui. 


of  the  king  of  England ;  but  for  tlie  labor  -^f  free  men  new 
shackles  were  devised. 

America  abounded  in  iron  ore ;  its  unwrought  iron  v.'as 
burdened  with  a  duty  in  the  English  market.     Its  people  were 
rapidly  gaining  skill  at  the  fm-nace  and  the  forge ;  in  February 
1750,  the  subject  engaged  the  attention  of  the  house  of  com- 
mons.    To  check  the  danger  of  American  rivalry,  Charles 
Towaishend  was  placed  at  the  head  of  a  committee,  on  which 
Horatio  Walpole,  the  auditor,  and  Robert  Xugent,  afterward 
Lord  Clare — a  man  of  talents,  yet  not  free  fro'  .i  "  bombast  and 
absui-dities " — were  among  the  associates.     After  a  few  days' 
dehberation,  he  brought  in  a  bill  which  permitted  American 
iron,  in  its  rudest  forms,  to  be  imported  duty  free ;  but,  now 
that  the  nailers  in  the  colonies  could  afford  spikes  and  large 
nails  cheaper  than  the  English,  it  forbade  the  smiths  of  Amer- 
ica to  erect  any  mill  for  slitting  or  rolling  iron,  or  any  platino- 
forge  to  work  with  a  tilt-hammer,  or  any  furnace  for  making 
steel.     "  The  restriction,"  said  Penn,  "  is  of  most  dangerous 
consequence  to  prevent  our  making  what  we  want  for  our 
own  use.    It  is  an  attack  on  the  rights  of  the  king's  subjects  in 
America."    "William  Bollan  pleaded  its  inconsistency  with  the 
natural  rights  cf  the  colonists.     But,  while  England  aj)plauded 
the  restriction,  its  owners  of  iron  mines  grudged  to  America 
a  share  of  the  market  for  the  rough  material ;  the  tannei-s, 
from  the  threatened  inaction  of  the  English  furnaces,  feared  a 
diminished  supply  of  bark ;  the  clergy  and  gentry  foreboded 
injury  to  the  price  of  woodlands.    The  importation  of  bar  iron 
from  the  colonies  was  therefore  limited  to  the  port  of  London, 
which  already  had  its  supply  from  abroad.     The  ironmongei-s 
and  smiths  of  Birmingham  thought  well  of  importing  bars  of 
iron  free ;  but,  from  "  compassion "  to  the  "  many  thousand 
famiUes  in  the  kh.gdom "  who  otherwise  "must  be  mined,'' 
they  prayed  that  "  the  American  people  "  might  be  subject  not 
to  the  proposed  restrictions  only,  but  to  such  others  "  as  may 
secure  forever  the  trade  to  this  country."     Some  would  have 
admitted  the  raw  material  from  wo  colony  where  its  minute 
manufacture  was  carried  on.     The  house  even  divided  on  the 
proposal  that  every  slitting-mill  in  America  should  be  demol- 
ished.    The  clause  failed  by  a  majority  of  only  twenty-two ; 


1750. 


THE  EXPLOPATION  OF  OHIO. 


357 

Init  an  immediate  return  was  required  of  every  mill  already 
existmg,  and  the  number  was  never  to  be  increased 

Tlie  royaUst  Kennedy,  a  member  of  the  council  of  New 
York  and  an  advocate  for  parliamentary  taxation,  publicly 
urged  cm  the  ministry  that  "  liberty  and  encom-agemj  are  the 
basKS  of  colomes."     "To  supply  ourselves,"  he  urged,  "with 
inanufactures  is  practicable ;  and  where  people  in  such  drcum- 
•stances  are  numerous  and  free,  they  will  push  what  they  think 
IS  lor  their  mterest,  and  all  restraining  laws  will  be  thought 
oppression,  especially  such  laws  as,  according  to  the  concep- 
tions wo  have  of  English  liberty,  they  have  no  hand  in  contro- 
verting or  making.     They  cannot  be  kept  dependent  b-^  keep- 
mg  tliem  poor  ;^'  and  he  quoted  to  the  ministry  the  comisel  of 
Iremjhard  in  1722,  that  the  way  to  prevent  them  from  Avean- 
mg  themselves  was  to  keep  it  out  of  their  wiH.     But  the 
mother  country  was  more  and  more  inclined  to  rely  on  meas- 
ures of  restraint  and  power.    It  began  to  be  considered  that  the 
gimrd-ships  were  stationed  in  the  colonies  not  so  much  for  their 
defence  as  to  preserve  them  in  their  dependence  and  prevent 
tneir  ilhcit  trade. 

In  the  same  year,  Turgot,  prior  of  the  Sorbonne,  and  then 
Jiist  three-and-twonty  years  of  age,  exclaimed  to  the  assembled 
clergy  of  France :  -  Vast  regions  of  America !    Equality  keeps 
from  them  both  luxury  and  want,  and  preserves  to  them  purity 
and  suuphcity  with  freedom.     Europe  herself  will  tind  there 
the  perfection  of  her  political  societies,  and  the  surest  support 
of  her  well-being."    "  Colonies,"  added  the  yomig  philosopher, 
are  like  fruits  which  cling  to  the  tree  only  till  they  ripen' 
Carthage  declared  itself  free  as  soon  as  it  co    A  take  care  of 
Itself;  so  likewise  will  America."     England's  colonial  policy 
^va.s  destroying  itself.     The  same  motive  which  prevailed  to 
restrain  colonial  commerce  and  pursuits  urged  England  to  en- 
croac  1  on  the  possessions  of  France,  that  the  futm-e  inhabitants 
ot  8t,  1  larger  regions  might  fall  under  English  rule  and  pay 
tnimte  to  English  industry.     In  the  mercantile  system  lay  the 
seeds  of  a  war  with  France  for  teri-itory,  and  with  America  for 
niaependence. 

But  the  attempt  to  establish  that  system  of  govcrament 
which  must  have  provoked  immediate  resistance,  was  delayed 


\  % 


!       ■■ 


MM  : 


;! 


.1^     J 


i 

1  ! 

;: 

L      '  ;'. 

!■■■' 

!;■ 

i'  4. 

'^ 

858 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  CANADA.        ep.  i.;  en.  in. 


m 


i  * 


K.I- 


by  jealousies  and  divisions  in  the  cabinet.  "  It  goes  to  my 
heart,"  said  the  duke  of  Newcastle,  "  that  a  new,  unknown, 
factious  young  party  is  set  up  to  rival  me  and  nose  me  every- 
where ; "  and  he  resolved  to  drive  out  of  the  administration  the 
colleague  whom  he  disliked,  envied,  and  feared.  The  affairs 
of  Nova  Scotia  served  his  purposes  of  intrigue. 

The  French  saw  with  extreme  anxiety  the  settlement  at 
Ilahfax.  To  counteract  its  influence,  a  large  force,  under  tlie 
sanguinary  partisan,  La  Corne,  had  thi'ough  the  winter  held 
possession  of  the  isthmus  of  the  peninsula,  and  found  phelter 
among  the  Acadians  south  of  the  Messagouclie,  in  the  town  of 
Chiegnecto,  no^v  known  as  Fort  Lawrence.  The  inhabitants  of 
that  village,  although  it  lay  beyond  the  limits  which  La  Come 
was  insti-ucted  to  defend,  were  compelled  to  take  the  oaths  of 
allegiance  to  the  French  king,  and,  in  the  name  of  three  chiefs 
of  the  Micmac  Indians,  orders  had  been  sent  to  the  Acadians 
of  the  remoter  settlements  to  renounce  subjection  to  England 
and  take  refuge  \vith  the  French. 

Comwallis,  who  had  received  the  first  notice  of  the  move- 
ment from  La  Jonquiere  himself,  desired  immediately  to  re- 
cover the  town.  He  sought  aid  from  Massachusetts ;  but  re- 
ceived for  answer  that,  by  the  constitution  of  that  province, 
the  assembly  must  first  be  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  raising 
supplies;  that,  to  insure  co-operation,  compulsory  measures 
must  be  adopted  by  the  British  government  toward  all  the 
colonies.  He  was  therefore  able  to  send  from  Halifax  no 
more  than  a  party  of  four  hundred  men,  who,  just  at  sunset  on 
the  twentieth  of  April,  arrived  at  the  entrance  of  wJiat  is  now 
called  Cumberland  basin.  The  next  day  the  transports  sailed 
near  the  harbor ;  the  flag  of  the  Bourbons  was  raised  on  the 
dikes  to  the  north  of  the  Messagouche ;  while,  to  the  south  of 
it,  the  priest,  La  Loutre  himself,  set  fire  to  the  church  in  Chieg- 
necto ;  and  its  despairing  inhabitants,  attached  to  their  homes 
which  stood  on  some  of  the  most  fertile  land  in  the  world,  yet 
bound  to  France  by  their  rehgion  and  their  oaths,  consumed 
their  houses  to  ashes,  and  escaped  across  the  river  which  marks 
the  limit  of  the  peninsula. 

On  Sunday,  the  twenty-second,  Lawrence,  the  English  com- 
mander, having  lauded  north  of  Messagouche,  had  au  interview 


EP.  I. ;  en.  HI. 


1750. 


THE  EXPLORATION  OF  OHIO. 


359 


vhich  marks 


with  La  Come,  who  avowed  liis  pui-pose,  under  instructions 
from  La  Jonquiure,  to  hold  at  aU  liazards  every  post  as  far  as 
the  river  Messagouche  till  the  boundaries  between  the  two 
countries  should  be  settled  by  commissaries.  He  had  under 
his  command  Indians,  Canadians,  regular  troops,  and  Acadian 
refugees,  to  the  number,  it  was  thought,  of  twenty-five  hun- 
dred. The  English  officer  was  therefore  compelled  to  retire 
on  the  very  day  on  which  he  landed. 

•  A  swift  vessel  was  despatched  expressly  from  Ilafifax  to 
inform  the  government  tliat  La  Come  and  La  Loutre  lield  pos- 
session of  the  isthmus ;  that  a  town,  which  was  within  the  ac- 
knowledged British  limits,  had  been  sot  on  fire ;  that  its  inhabi- 
tants had  crossed  over  to  the  French  side ;  that  the  refugees, 
able  to  bear  arms,  were  organized  as  a  military  force ;  that  the 
French  Acadians,  remaining  within  the  peninsula,  unanhnously 
wished  to  abandon  it,  rather  than  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to 
the  English  kins-:  thai;  the  savages  were  incited  to  inroads  and 
threats  of  a  general  massacre ;  that  the  war  was  continued  on 
the  part  of  the  French  by  all  open  and  secret  means.  At  the 
same  time,  the  governments  of  New  Hampshire  and  the  Mas- 
sachusetts bay  were  informed  of  "the  audacious  proceedings" 
of  the  French,  and  invited  to  join  in  punishing  La  Corne  as 
"  a  public  incendiary." 

Li  England,  the  eari  of  Halifax  insisted  that  the  colony 
should  be  supported.  New  settlers  were  collected  to  be  cai-ried 
over  at  the  public  expense ;  and  an  Irish  regiment  was  sent, 
with  orders  that  Chiegnecto  should  be  taken,  fortified,  and,  if 
possible,  colonized  by  Protestants.  Yet  a  marked  difference  of 
opiiiion  existed  between  the  lords  of  trade  and  their  superior. 
Bedford  was  honorably  inclined  to  a  pacific  adjustment  with 
France ;  but  Ilahfax  was  ready  to  accept  all  risks  of  war.  Im- 
patient at  his  subordinate  position,  he  "  heartily  hated  "  his 
patron,  and  aspired  to  a  seat  in  t:ie  cabinet,  with  exclusive  au- 
thority in  the  department. 

Newcastle  was  sure  to  seize  the  occasion  to  side  against  the 
duke  of  Bedford,  of  whose  "  boyishness "  and  inattention  to 
business  even  Pelham  began  to  complain.  "His  office  is  a 
sinecure,"  said  the  king,  who  missed  the  pedantry  of  forms. 
It  seemed  as  if  Ilahfax  would  at  once  obtain  the  seals  of  the 


if    . 


Ill :  i 


■ti 


360 


TEE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA.        ep.  i. 


on.  III. 


sontliem  department,  with  the  entire  charge  of  the  colonies. 
"  Among  the  yonng  ones,  Halifax,"  wrote  Pclham,  "  has  the 
most  efficient  talents."  "  He  would  be  more  approved  hv  the 
pubhc,"  thought  Hardwicke,  "than  either  Iloldernesse  or 
Wuldegrave."  But  Newcastle  interposed,  saying:  "Halifax 
is  the  last  man,  except  Sandwich,  I  should  think  of  for  secre- 
tary of  state.  He  is  so  conceited  of  his  parts  he  would  not  be 
in  the  cabinet  one  month  without  thinking  he  knew  as  much 
or  more  of  business  than  any  one  man.  He  is  impracticaMo; 
the  most  odious  man  in  the  kingdom.  A  man  of  his  life,  spirit, 
and  temper  A^all  think  he  knows  better  than  anybody."  New- 
castle would  have  none  of  "  that  young  fry ; "  and  yet  he  would 
be  rid  of  Bedford.  "  I  am,  I  must  be  an  errant  cipher  of  the 
worst  sort,"  said  he  in  his  distress,  "  if  the  duke  of  Bedford 
remains  coupled  with  me  as  secretary  of  state."  To  get  rid  of 
Bedford  was  still  to  him  "  the  great  point,"  "  the  great  point  of 
all,"  more  than  the  choice  of  the  next  emperor  of  Germa,uv, 
and  more  than  a  war  with  the  Bourbons. 

The  two  dukes  remained  at  variance,  leaving  CornwalKs  to 
"  get  the  better  in  Nova  Scotia  without  previous  concert  with 
France."  In  August,  a  second  expedition  left  Halifax  to  take 
possession  of  Chiegnecto.  A  few  Indians  and  Acadian  refu- 
gees, aided,  perhaps,  by  French  in  disguise,  had  intrenched 
themselves  behind  the  dikes,  and  opposed  its  landing;  nor 
were  they  dislodged  without  an  intrepid  assault,  in  Avhicli  six 
of  the  English  were  killed  and  twelve  wounded.  This  was 
the  first  shedding  of  b^-od  after  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 
Fort  Lawrence  was  nov.  ,iiilt  on  the  south  of  the  Messagouche; 
but  the  French  had  already  fortified  the  opposite  bank  at  Fort 
Beau  Sejour  as  well  as  at  Bay  Yerte.  Having  posts  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  John's  river  and  the  alliance  of  the  neighbor- 
ing Indians,  they  held  the  continent  from  Bay  Verte  to  the 
borders  of  the  Penobscot. 

Such  was  the  state  of  occupancy  when,  in  September  1750, 
at  Paris,  Shirley,  who  had  been  placed  at  the  head  of  the  British 
commission,  presented  a  memorial,  claiming  for  the  English  all 
the  land  east  of  the  Penobscot  and  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
as  constituting  the  ancient  Acadia.  The  claim,  in  its  full  lati- 
tude, was  preposterous.     In  their  reply,  the  French  commis- 


KP.  I. ;  on.  in. 


1750. 


THE  EXPLORATION  OF  OHIO. 


361 


saries,  in  like  manner  disregarding  the  ob\  ious  constniction  of 
treaties,  narrowed  Acadia  to  the  strip  of  land  on  the  Atlantic 
between  Cape  St.  Mary  and  Cape  Canso. 

Tliere  existed  in  France  statesmen  who  thought  Canada 
itself  an  encumbrance,  entaihng  expenses  more  than  beneiits. 
But  La  Gahssouiere  pleaded  to  the  ministry  that  honor,  glory, 
and  religion  forbade  the  abandonment  of  faithful  and  affection- 
ate colonists,  and  the  renunciation  of  the  great  work  of  con- 
verting the  infidels  of  the  wilderness;  that  Detroit  was  the 
natural  centre  of  a  boundless  inland  commerce ;  that  the  coun- 
try of  Illinois,  in  a  delightful  climate,  was  an  open  prairie, 
r-iting  for  the  plough ;  tliat  Canada  and  Louisiana  were  the 
bulwarks  of  France  in  America  against  English  ambition. 
Puysieux,  the  Fi-ench  minister  for  foreign  affairs,  like  the  Eng- 
lisli  secretary,  Bedford,  was  earnestly  desirous  of  avoiding  war; 
hut  a  fresh  collision  in  America  touched  the  honor  of  the 
French  nation,  and  made  negotiation  hopeless. 

A  French  brigantine  with  a  schooner,  laden  with  provisions 
and  warlike  stores,  and  bound  from  Quebec  to  the  river  St. 
John's,  was  met  by  Rous,  in  the  British  ship-of-war  Albany,  off 
Cape  Sable.  He  fired  a  gim  to  bring  her  to ;  she  kept  on  'her 
course :  he  fired  another  and  a  third ;  and  the  brigantine  pre- 
pared for  action.  The  English  instantly  poured  into  her  a 
broadside  and  a  volley  of  small  anns,  and,  after  a  short  action, 
compelled  her  to  strike.  The  Albany  had  a  midshipman  and 
two  mariners  killed ;  the  French  lost  five  men.  The  brigan- 
tine was  taken  to  Halifax,  and  condemned  in  the  admiralty 
court.^  To  France  it  seemed  that  its  flag  had  been  insulted,  its 
maritime  rights  disregarded,  its  men  wantonly  slain  in  time  of 
peace,  its  property  piratically  seized  and  confiscated. 

The  territory  which  is  now  Vermont  was  equally  in  dis- 
pute ;  New  York  carried  its  claims  to  the  Connecticut  river ; 
France,  which  had  command  of  Lake  Champlain,  extended  her 
pretensions  to  the  crest  of  the  Green  Mountains ;  while  AVent- 
wortli,  the  only  royal  governor  in  New  England,  began  to  con- 
vey the  soil  between  the  Connecticut  and  Lake  Champlain  by 
grants  under  the  seal  of  New  Hampshire. 

A  deeper  interest  hung  over  the  region  drained  by  the 
Ohio.    What  language  shall  be  the  mother  tongue  of  its  future 


I 

\  ■ 

11 

'    iSS 

362 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  CANADA.        kp.  i.  ;  en.  m. 


'H 


|i'-i 


m  1   ! 


millions  ?  Shall  the  Latin  or  tlio  Teutonic  nationality  form  the 
seed  of  its  people?  This  year,  Thomas  Walker,  of  Virginia 
conducted  an  exploring  party  into  the  South-west,  and  gave  tbe 
name  of  Cumberland  to  a  range  of  mountains,  a  pass,  and  a 
river ;  on  a  beech-tree  Ambrose  Powell  carved  his  name,  whic-i 
is  still  home  by  a  river  and  a  valley. 

The  Six  Nations  asked  the  protection  of  New  York  for 
their  friends  and  allies  on  the  north  of  the  Ohio.  After  cou- 
cert  with  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  Clinton,  in  September 
1750,  appealed  to  the  assembly  for  means  to  continn  their  In- 
dian alliances,  and  to  assist  "  in  securing  the  hdelity  of  the  In- 
dians on  Ohio  river."     The  assembly  refused. 

The  rrench,  by  their  systeui  of  administration,  insured 
obedience  to  "  one  council  and  one  voice."  To  counteract  their 
designs,  the  best  minds  in  New  York  and  other  provinces  were 
devising  methods  for  "uniting  the  colonies  on  the  main." 
Doubting  whether  union  could  be  effected  "  without  an  imme- 
diate ai)plication  to  his  majesty  for  that  purpose,"  the  council 
of  New  York  still  determined  that  the  governor  "  should  write 
to  all  governors  upon  the  continent  having  Indian  nations  in 
their  alUance,  to  invite  conunissioners  from  their  respective 
governments  "  to  meet  the  savage  chiefs  at  Albany.  But,  from 
what  Clinton  called  "  the  penurious  temper  of  American  as- 
BembUes,"  this  invitation  was  not  generally  accepted,  though  it 
forms  one  important  step  in  the  progress  of  America  toward 
union. 

"While  Pennsylvania,  in  strife  with  its  proprietaries,  neg- 
lected its  western  frontier,  the  Ohio  company  of  Virginia, 
profiting  by  the  intelligence  of  Indian  hunters  who  had  fol- 
lowed every  stream  to  its  head-spring  and  crossed  every  gap  in 
the  mountain  ranges,  discovered  the  path  by  Will's  creek  to 
the  Ohio.  Their  stores  of  goods,  in  1750,  were  carried  no  far- 
ther than  that  creek.  There  they  were  sold  to  traders,  who, 
v/ith  rivals  from  Pemisylvania,  penetrated  the  West  as  far  as 
the  Miarais. 

To  search  out  and  discover  the  lands  westward  of  "tlie 
Great  Mountains,"  the  Ohio  company  summoned  the  adventu- 
rous Christopher  Gist  from  his  frontier  home  on  the  Yadkin. 
He  was  instructed  to  examme  the  western  country  as  far  as  the 


VWff^ 


Ki'-  I. ;  CH.  m. 


1750-1751. 


THE  EXPLORATION  OF  OmO. 


363 


falls  of  the  Oliio;  to  look  for  a  large  tract  of  good  level  land  ; 
to  mark  the  pfiBses  in  the  mountains ;  to  trace  the  courses  of 
the  rivers ;  to  count  tlie  falls ;  to  observe  the  strength  and 
numbers  of  the  Indian  nations. 

On  the  last  day  of  October  1750,  the  bold  envoy  of  civil- 
ization parted  from  the  Potomac.     He  i)assed  througli  snows 
over  "the  stony  and  broken  land"  of  the  Allegiiauies ;  he 
baited  among  the  twenty  Delawaie  families   that  composed 
Sbanoppin's  town  on  the  south-east  side  of  the  Ohio ;  swini- 
uiiiig  his  horses  across  the  river,  he  descended  througli  the  rich 
but  narrow  valley  to  Logstown.     "  You  are  come,"  said  the 
jealous  people,  "to  settle  the  Indians'  lands:  you  never  shaU 
go  home  safe."     Yet  they  respected  him  as  a  niessengei-  from 
the  English  king.     From  the  Great  Beaver  creek  he  crossed  to 
the  Muskingum,  killing  deer  and  wild  turkeys.     On  Elk's  Eye 
creek  he  found  a  village  of  the  Ottawas,  friends  to  the  French 
The  hundred  families  of  Wyandots,  or  Little  Iklingoes,  at 
Muskmgimi,  were  divided,  one  half  adhering  to  the  English. 
George  Croghan,  an  Indian  trader,  then  the  emissary  from 
Pennsylvania,  was  already  there ;  and  traders  came  with  the 
news  that  two  of  his  people  were  taken  by  a  party  of  French 
and  Indians,  and  carried  to  the  new  fort  at  Sandasky.    "  Come 
and  live  with  us,"  said  the  Wyandots  to  Gist;  "brino-  great 
guns  and  make  a  fort.     If  the  French  claim  the  branches  of 
the  lakes,  those  of  f  t,  Ohio  belong  to  us  and  our  brothers,  the 
English."     In  January,  1751,  after  a  delay  of  more  than  a 
month,  the  Wyandots  held  a  council  at  Muskingmn ;   but 
while  they  welcomed  the  English  agents,  and  accepted  their 
strings  of  wampum,  they  deferred  their  decision  to  a  general 
council  of  their  several  nations.     The  Delawares,  who  dwelt 
^ve  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto,  like  the  othei-s  of 
then-  tribe,  which  counted  in  all  five  hundred  warriors,  prom- 
ised good-will  and  love  to  the  English. 

Just  below  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto  lay  tlie  town  of  the 
bbawnees,  on  each  side  of  the  Ohio.  They  gratefully  adhered 
to  the  English,  who  had  averted  from  them  the  wrath  of  the 
oix  JNations. 

The  envoys  of  the  English  world  next  crossed  the  Little 
iliauu,  and  journeyed  in  February  toward  the  Miami  river ; 


il  ii  ill  ft! 


inif 


■'    '1 


■1' 


!r 


i 

- 

'■f  jj 

i 

864 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA.   kp.  i. ;  cii.  ui. 


first  of  white  men  on  record,  they  saw  that  the  land  heyond 
the  Scioto,  c.\ce])t  for  the  first  twenty  miles,  is  rich  and  lovel 
bearing  wahmt-trees  of  huge  size,  the  maple,  the  wild  cherry, 
and  the  ash;  full  of  lit*-le  streams  and  rivnlets;  variegated  by 
natural  prairies,  covered  with  wild  rye,  blue  grass,  and  white 
clover.  Turkeys  abounded,  and  deer ;  elks  and  most  sorts  of 
game ;  of  buffaloes,  thirty  or  forty  were  fTe(piently  seen  feed- 
ing in  one  meadow.  "  Nothing,"  they  cried,  "  is  wanting  but 
cultivation  to  make  this  a  most  delightful  country."  Their 
horses  swam  over  the  swollen  current  of  the  Great  Miami ;  on 
a  raft  of  logs  they  transported  their  goods  and  saddles.  Out- 
side of  the  town  of  the  Picqualennees  the  warriors  came 
forth  to  them  with  the  peace-pipe.  They  entered  the  village 
with  the  English  colors,  were  received  as  guests  into  the  king's 
house,  and  planted  the  red  cross  upon  its  roof. 

The  Miamis  were  the  most  powerful  confederacy  of  the 
West,  excelling  the  Six  Nations,  with  whom  they  were  in 
amity.  Each  tribe  had  its  own  cldef ;  of  whom  one,  at  that 
time  the  chief  of  the  Piankeshaws,  was  chosen  indifferently 
to  rule  the  whole  nation.  They  formerly  dwelt  on  the  Wabash, 
but,  for  the  sake  of  trading  "uath  the  English,  drew  nearer  the 
East.  Their  influence  reached  to  the  Mississippi,  and  they  re- 
ceived frequent  visits  from  tribes  beyond  that  river.  The 
toAvn  of  Picqua  contained  about  four  hundred  fann'lies,  and 
^vas  one  of  the  strongest  in  thi:t  part  of  the  continent. 

On  the  night  of  the  arrixal  of  the  envoys  from  Virginia 
and  Pennsylvania,  two  striiigs  of  wampum,  given  at  the  Long 
House  of  the  villages,  removed  trouble  from  their  hearts  and 
cleared  their  eyes ;  and  four  other  belts  ccnhrmed  the  message 
from  the  Wyandots  and  Delawares,  commending  the  English 
to  their  care. 

In  tlie  days  that  followed,  the  traders'  men  helped  the  men 
of  Picqua  to  repair  their  fort,  and  distributed  clothes  and 
paint,  that  they  might  array  themselves  for  the  council.  When 
it  was  told  that  deputies  from  the  Wawdachtas,  or,  as  we  call 
them,  Weas,  and  from  the  Piankeshaws,  were  coming,  depu- 
ties from  the  Picquas  went  forth  to  meet  them.  The  Enghsh 
were  summoned  to  the  Long  House,  to  sit  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  in  the  silence  of  exi^ectation,  when  two  from  each  tribe, 


KP.  I. ;  OH.  in. 


1781. 


THE  EXPLORATION  OF  OniO. 


80.5 


commissioned  by  their  nations  to  bring  the  long  pipe,  entered 
with  their  message  and  their  cduniet. 

On  tlio  twenty-first  of  February,  after  a  distribution  of 
presents,  articles  of  peace  and  alliance  were  drawn  up  between 
the  English  of  Pennsylvania  on  the  one  side,  and  tin;  Weas 
and  Piankeshaws  on  the  other;  were  signed  and  sealed  in  du- 
plicate, and  delivered  on  both  ,  Ides.  All  the  friendly  tril)es  of 
the  West  were  to  meet  the  next  summer  at  Logsto^vn,  for  a  gen- 
eral treaty  with  Virgir.ia. 

The  indentures  had  just  been  exchanged,  wlien  four  Otta- 
was  drew  dear,  with  a  present  from  the  governor  oi  (Canada; 
were  admitted  to  the  council,  and  desired  a  renewal  of  friend- 
ship with  their  fathers,  the  French.  The  king  of  the  Pianke- 
shaws, setting  up  the  English  colors,  as  well  as  the  French,  re- 
plied :  "  The  path  to  the  French  is  bloody,  and  was  made  so 
by  them.  We  have  cleared  a  road  for  our  brothers,  the  Eng- 
lish; and  your  fathers  have  made  it  foul  and  have  taken  some 
of  our  brothers  prisoners."  They  had  seized  three  at  the 
Huron  village  near  Detroit,  and  one  on  the  Wabash.  "  This," 
added  the  king,  « Ave  look  upon  as  done  to  us  ;"  and,  turning 
suddenly  from  them,  he  strode  out  of  the  council.  At  this,  the 
representative  of  the  French,  an  Ottawa,  wept  and  howled 
predicting  sorrow  for  the  Miamis.  ' 

The  Weas  and  Piankeshaws,  after  deliberation,  sent  a 
speech  to  the  English  by  the  great  orator  of  the  Weas. 
"  You  have  taken  us  by  the  hand,"  were  his  words,  "  into 
the  great  chain  of  friendship.  Therefore  we  present  you 
with  these  two  bundles  of  skins  to  make  shoes  for  your 
people ;  and  this  pipe  to  smoke,  to  assure  you  our  hearts  are 
good  tov.'ard  you,  our  brothers." 

^  In  the  presence  of  the  Ottawa  ambassadors,  the  great  war- 
chief  of  Picqua  stood  uj),  and,  summoning  in  imagination  the 
French  to  be  present,  lie  spoke  :  "  Fathers !  you  have  desired 
we  should  go  home  to  you,  but  I  tell  you  it  is  not  our  home; 
for  we  have  made  a  path  to  the  sun-rising,  and  have  been  taken' 
by  the  hand  by  our  brothers,  the  English,  the  Six  Nations,  the 
Delawares,  the  ShaAvnees,  and  the  Wyandots ;  and,  we  assure 
you,  in  that  road  we  will  go.  That  you  may  know  our  mind, 
we  send  you  this  stiing  of  black  wampum. 


I   ,;, 


866 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA.        ep.  i. ;  oir.  lu. 


I-'' 


"  Brothers,  the   Ottawas,   ti'll   that  to  your  fathers,   iho 
FroiU'li ;  for  we  ri[)i'ak  it  from  our  hearts." 

The  I'rench  colors  are  taken  down,  the  Ottawas  are  dis- 
missed to  tlie  Fronch  fort  at  Sandusky.  The  Long  House 
late  the  (•enate-ehainl)er  of  the  ".nited  Miamis,  rings  with  the 
music  and  the  riotous  motions  of  the  feather-dance.  A  war- 
chief  strikes  a  post :  tlie  music  ceases,  aiul  the  dancers,  on  the 
instant,  are  hushed  to  silent  listeners ;  the  bravo  recounts  his 
deeds  in  war,  and  proves  the  greatnes^i  of  his  iniiid  by  throwiu"' 
presents  lavishly  to  the  musicians  and  the  dancers.  Then  the 
turmoil  of  joy  is  renewed,  till  another  rises  to  boast  his  prow- 
ess, aiid  scatter  gifts  in  his  turn. 

On  the  first  day  of  March,  the  agent  of  the  Oliio  company 
took  Ills  leave.  Extending  his  to...,  ho  gazed  with  rapture 
on  the  valley  of  the  Great  Miami,  "  the  finest  meadows  that 
can  be."  IIo  was  told  that  the  land  was  not  less  fertile  to 
the  very  liead-springs  of  the  river,  and  west  to  the  Wabash. 
He  descended  to  the  Ohio  by  way  of  the  Little  Miami,  still 
finding  ;nany  "  clear  fields,"  where  herds  of  forty  or  fifty  buf- 
faloes were  feeding  together  on  the  wonderfully  tall  grasses. 
When  within  fifteen  miles  of  the  falls  at  Louisville,  he  checked 
his  jierilous  course;  then  ascending  the  valley  of  the  Kentucky 
river,  he  found  a  pass  to  the  Bluestone,  and  returned  to  his 
employers  by  way  of  the  Roanoke. 

In  April  1751,  Croghan  again  repaired  to  the  Ohio  In- 
dians. The  half -king,  a  chief  so  called  because  ho  and  his 
tribe  were  subordinate  to  the  Irorpiois  confederacy,  reported 
that  the  news  of  the  expedition  under  Celoi  >n  had  swayed  the 
Onondaga  council  to  allow  the  English  to  establish  a  trading- 
house  ;  and  a  belt  of  wampum  invited  Hamilton,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, to  build  a  fort  at  the  forks  of  Monongahela. 


17B1.     AMEKIOA    UESlSTiS  AltlilTIi/UV  (NSTKUUTIONS. 


307 


CHAPTER    TV. 

AMERICA    K..JFTOES    TO    lilO    RULED    BV    AUDnRARY    INSTRUCTIONS. 
IIEXRV    PELIIAm's   ADMINISTRATION   CONTINUED. 

1751-1753. 

The  British  ministry,  absorbed  by  iiitri^ios  at  home,  gave 
ittlo  heed  to  the  glorious  country  beyond  tlie  Alleghanies. 
iiavnig  failed  in  tbo  attempt  to  subject  the  colonies  by  act  of 
jiarhainent  to  all  future  orders  of  the  king,  the  lords  of  trade 
sought  to  gc.:n  the  same  end  in  detail.    Rhode  Island,  a  charter 
government,  of  which  the  laws  were  valid  without  the  iment 
of  the  king,  continued  to  emit  paper  currenev ;  and  the  luore 
troely,  because  IVfassachusotts  had  ^vithdrawn  its  notes  and  re- 
nu-ned  to  hard  money.      In  1742,  twenty-eight  shillings  of 
Kliode   Island  currency  wouH  hove  purchased  an  ounce  of 
■silver;  seven  years  afterward  it  required  sixty  shilHngs :  cora- 
parcd  with  sterling  money,  the  depreciation  was  as  ten  and  a 
halt  or  eleven  to  one.     From  the  board  of  trade,  in  March 
llol,  ii  bill  was  presented  to  restrain  bills  of  credit  in  Kew 
li^ngland,  with  an  additional  clause  giving  the  authority  of  law 
to  the  king's  instnicthns  on  that  subject.     In  "  the  dano-erous 
precedent "  Bollan  discerned  the  latent  purpose  of  exttmding 
the  same  authority  to  other  articles.     He  argued,  moreover, 
that  "the  province  had  a  natural  and  lawful  right  to  make  use 
of  Its  credit  for  its  defence  and  preservation."     New  York 
urged  "the  benefit  of  a  paper  credit."     The  obnoxious  clause 
was  abandoned;  yet  there  seemed  to  exist  in  the  minds  of 
some  persons  of  consequence"  a  fixed  design  of  getting  a 
parliamentary  sanction  to  the  king's  instructions. 

Meantime,  pariiament,  on  the  motion  of  Lord  Chesterfield, 


1  I 


'  i.'i 


i 
■ 
1 

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i 

3 

1 

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f 

i 
I 

.  *  ■  t.'i      i 

^  L 

i.^ 

I  ' 


iltiiil 


308    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.;  en.  ir. 

for  all  the  British  doiiiiuions,  adopted  the  new  style  of  reckon- 
ing time. 

The  boa  i  of  trade  was  all  the  while  maturing  its  scheme 
for  controlling  America.  AVith  Bedford's  approbation,  they 
advised  a  more  authoritative  commission  for  tlie  next  governor 
of  Xew  York,  with  more  stringent  instructions  to  its  legislature 
to  grant  a  permanent  revenue  to  the  royal  officers,  suffiSent  for 
Indian  presents  and  for  the  civil  list.  At  the  same  time  it 
was  resolved,  under  the  guise  of  lenity,  to  obtain  an  American 
revenue  by  aid  of  parliament.  The  prohibitory  discriminatin.r 
duties  in  favor  of  the  British  West  Indies,  "given  and  grant*- 
ed"  by  parliament  in  1733,  on  the  products  of  the  foreign 
West  India  islands  imported  into  the  continental  colonies 
were  to  be  greatly  reduced  and  collected. 

But  no  energetic  system  of  colonial  administration  could  be 
adopted  without  the  aid  of  the  friends  of  Bedford,  and  an 
intrigue  to  drive  him  from  the  cabinet  had  come  to  maturity. 
His  neglect  of  the  forms  of  office  had  vexed  the  king ;  his 
independence  of  character  had  offended  the  king's  mistress. 
Sandwich,  his  friend,  wtis  dismissed  from  the  admiralty.  Ad- 
mitted in  June  to  an  audience  at  court,  Bedford  mveighod  long 
and  vehemently  against  the  treachery  of  the  duke  of  ]N"ewcastle° 
and  resigned.  His  successor  was  the  earl  of  Iloldemesse,  a 
courtly  peer,  formal,  and  of  talents  which  could  not  disquiet 
even  Newer  ;tle  or  alarm  America. 

Every  province  shunned  the  charge  of  securing  the  valley  of 
the  Ohio.  Of  tlie  Virginia  company  the  means  were  limited. 
The  assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  from  motives  of  economy,  re- 
fused to  ratify  the  treaty  which  Croghau  had  negotiated  at 
Picqua,  while  the  i)rop]-ietaries  of  that  province  denied  tlicir 
liability  "  to  contribute  to  Indian  or  any  other  expenses,"  and 
sought  to  cast  tlie  burden  of  a  western  fort  on  the  erpially  re- 
luctant "  people  of  A^irginia."  Xew  York  would  but  remon- 
strate with  the  governor  of  Canada. 

At  the  appointed  time  in  July  1751,  the  deputies  of  the  Six 
Nations  repaired  to  Albany  to  renew  their  covenant  chain,  ;nid 
to  cliide  the  inaction  of  the  English.  When  the  congress, 
'.\-hich  Clinton  luid  invited  to  meet  the  Irocjuois,  asseml)led  at 
Albany,  Soutli  Carolina  rune,  for  the  iii-st  time,  to  join  in 


1761-1752.  AMERICA  RESISTS  ARBITRARY  INSTRUCTIONS.  369 

council  with  New  York,  Connecticut,  and  Massachusetts-its 
eai-lies  movement  toward  confederation.  From  the  Catawbas 
ereditary  foes  to  the  Six  Nations,  deputies  attended  to  hush 
the  war-song  that  for  so  many  generations  had  lured  their  chiefs 
along  the  Blue  Ridge  to  western  Kew  York.  They  approached 
the  gr-and  council,  smging  words  of  reconciliation ;  bearing 
colored  feathers  honzontallj,  as  to  friends.  Their  great  chic5 
was  the  first  to  smoke  the  peace-pipe  which  he  had  lighted  • 
then  Ilendnck,  of  the  Mohawks;  and  all  the  principal  sachems' 
in  succession.  Nor  waa  the  council  dismissed  till  a  tree  of  peace 
wa.  planted,  which  was  ever  to  be  green,  and  to  spread  its 
simdow  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 

The  French,  on  their  side,  sent  priests  to  proselyte  the  Six 
Na  ions,  and  raders  to  undersell  the  British;  in  the  summer 
of  liol,  they  launched  an  armed  vessel  of  unusual  size  on  Lake 
Ontario,  and  converted  their  trading-house  at  Niagara  into  a 
fortress ;  they  warned  the  governor  of  Pennsylvania  that  the 
English  never  should  make  a  treaty  in  the  basin  of  the  Ohio  • 
they  despatched  troops  to  prevent  an  intended  congress  of  red 
men;  and  they  resolved  to  ruin  the  English  interest  m  the 
remoter  VV^est  by  taking  vengeance  on  the  Miamis. 

Yet  Louis  XV.  disclaimed  hostile  intentions;  and  to  the 
Lritish  nun,  rter  at  Paris  he  expressed  concern  that  any  cause 
of  offence  had  arisen.     But  Saint-Contest,  who,  in  September 
r-ol,  became  minister,  though  a  feeble  statesman  and  fond  of 
peace  aimed  at  a  federative  maritime  system  against  England  • 
and  Rouille,  the  minister  of   the   marine  department,  loved 
H-ar  and  prepared  for  it.     Spain  wisely  kept  aloof.     "Byan- 
tipatly,  and  from  interest,"  said  the  marquis  of  Ensenada,  the 
considerate  minister  of  Ferdinand  YL,  "  the  French  and  Eng- 
hsli  Will  be  enemies,  for  they  are  rivals  for  universal  com- 
merce;    and  he  urged  on  his  sovereign  seasonable  prepara- 
tions, that  he  might,  by  neutrality,  recover  Gibraltar. 

i^verytlung  portended  a  conflict  between  England  and 
France  along  their  frontiers  in  America.  To  be  prepared  for 
It,  Umton  s  advisers  recommended  to  secure  the  dominion  of 
Lake  Ontario  by  forts  and  by  an  armed  sloop.  It  was  asked, 
llow  IS  the  expense  to  be  defrayed  i  And  the  governor  of 
iNew  icM-k  proposed  anew  "a  general  duty  by  act  of  pariia- 
VOL.  n.— 24 


i«  m 


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f  11 'I     .  I 


370    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.  ;  on.  iv. 

ment ;  because  it  would  be  a  most  vain  imagination  to  expect 
that  all  tlie  colonies  would  severally  agree  to  impose  it." 

The  receiver-general  of  New  York,  Archibald  Kennedy, 
urged,  through  the  press,  "  an  annual  meeting  of  commissioners 
from  all  the  colonies,  at  New  Yoric  or  Albany  ; "  and  advised 
an  increase  of  the  respective  quotas,  and  the  enlargement  of  the 
union,  so  as  to  comprise  the  Carolinas.  "From  upward  of 
forty  years'  observation  upon  the  conduct  of  provincial  assem- 
bUes,  and  the  little  regard  paid  by  them  to  instructions,"  he  in- 
ferred that  "  a  British  parliament  must  oblige  them  to  contrib- 
ute, or  the  whole  would  end  in  altercation  and  words." 

"A  voluntary  union  entered  into  by  the  colonies  them- 
selves," said  a  voice  from  Philadelphia,  in  March  1752,  "  would 
be  preferable  to  one  imposed  by  parliament ;  for  it  would  be 
perhaps,  not  much  more  difficult  to  procure,  and  more  easy  to 
alter  and  improve,  as  circumstances  should  require  and  exj^eri- 
ence  direct.  It  would  be  very  strange  if  six  nations  of  ignorant 
savages  should  be  capable  of  forming  a  union  that  has  subsisted 
for  ages,  and  appears  indissoluble ;  and  yet  that  a  like  union 
should  be  imj)racticable  for  ten  or  a  dozen  English  colonies,  to 
whom  it  is  more  necessary,  and  must  be  more  advantageous." 

While  the  people  of  America  were  becoming  familiar  \nt\i 
the  thought  of  one  voluntary  confederacy,  the  government  of 
England  took  a  decisive  step  toward  that  concentration  of 
power  over  its  remote  dominions,  which  for  thirty  years  had 
been  the  avowed  object  of  the  board  of  trade.  Halifax,  witli 
liis  colleagues,  of  whom  Charles  Townshend  was  the  most  en- 
terprising and  most  rash,  was  vested  with  the  entire  patronage 
and  correspondence  belonging  to  American  affairs,  except  that 
on  important  mattei-s  governors  miglit  still  address  the  secretary 
of  state,  through  whom  nominations  to  offices  were  to  be  laid 
before  the  king.  Nor  did  the  board  of  trade  delay  to  exercise 
its  functions,  being  resolved  to  attach  large  emoluments,  inde- 
pendent of  American  acts  of  assembly,  to  all  the  offices,  of 
which  they  had  now  acquired  the  very  lucrative  patronage. 

But,  in  the  moment  of  experiment,  delay  arose  from  the 
state  of  relations  with  France.  Danger  lowered  on  the  whole 
American  frontier.  In  the  early  summer  of  1752,  John  Stark, 
of  New  Hampshire,  as  fearless  a  young  forester  as  ever  biv- 


1752. 


AMERICA  RESISTS   ARBITRARY  INSTRUCTIONS. 


371 

ouaeked  in  the  vvilderness,  of  a  rugged  nature  but  of  the  cool- 
est judgment,  was  trapping  beaver  along  the  brooks  of  his 
native  highlands,  when  a  party  of  St.  Francis  Indians  stole 
upon  his  steps  and  scalped  one  of  his  companions.  By  coura-e 
aim  good  humor,  he  won  the  love  of  his  captors,  was  saluted 
t.y  their  tribe  .is  a  young  chief,  and  for  a  ransom  was  set  free. 

Ihe  Ohio  company,  with  the  sanction  of  the  legislature  of 
Jirginia,  were  fonning  a  settlement  beyond  the  mountains. 
(Tist  had  on  a  second  tour,  explored  the  lands  south-east  of  the 
Ohio  as  far  as  the  Kanawha.  But  the  jealous  deputy  of  the 
Delaware  chiefs  exclaimed;  "Where  lie  the  lands  of  the  In- 
rl-ans  ?  The  French  claim  all  on  one  side  of  the  river,  and  the 
Engh.sli  on  the  other," 

Virginia  under  the  treaty  of  Lancaster,  of  1744,  assumed 
the  right  to  lands  as  far  west  as  the  Mississippi.  In  May  1752 
her  commissioners  met  chiefs  of  the  Mingoes,  Shawaees,  and 
Oliio  Indians  at  logstown.  It  was  pretended  that  chiefs  of 
the  Six  Nations  were  present ;  but,  at  a  general  meeting  at 
Onondaga,  they  had  resolved  that  it  did  not  suit  their  customs 
"totreat  of  affairs  in  the  woods  and  weeds."  "Now"  said 
the  half-king,  "we  see  and  know  that  the  French  design  to 
cheat  us  out  of  our  lands,  for  they  have  stnick  our  friendl,  the 
Miamis:  we  therefore  desire  our  brothers  of  Virginia  may 
build  a  strong  house  at  the  fork  of  Monongahela." 

In  pursuance  of  the  resolve  to  exclude  the  English  from 
the  valley  of  the  Miami,  on  the  morning  of  the  summer  sol- 
stice, two  Frenchmen,  with  two  hundred  and  forty  French 
Indians,  leaving  thirty  Frenchmen  as  a  reserve,  suddenly  ap- 
peared before  the  town  of  Picqua,  when  most  of  the  people 
were  hunting,  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  Eno-lish 
tniders  and  their  effects.     The  king  of  the  Piankeshaws  re- 
plied:   'They  are  here  a;   our  imatation ;  we  will  not  do  so 
I'iuse  a  thing  as  to  deliver  them  up."     The  French  party  as- 
saulted the  fort;   the  Piankeshaws  bravely  defended  them- 
Nolves  and  tlieir  guests,  but  were  overwhelmed  by  numbers 
>Me  white  man  was  killed,  and  five  were  taken  prisoners  ;  of 
t'e  Miamis,  fourteen  were  killrrl;  the  king  of  the  Pianke- 
Hliau^  the  clnef  of  the  confederacy,  was  sacrificed  and  eaten. 
•Vhen  William  Trent,  of  Virginia,  proceeded  from  the 


i     !  ■ 


I 


xAt: 


i       J 


372    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep,  i.  ;  ch.  iv. 

council-fires  at  Logsto\vn  to  the  Picqua,  he  found  the  French 
colors  flying  over  its  deserted  ruins.  Having  substituted  the 
English  flag,  he  returned  to  the  Shawnee  town,  at  the  moutli 
of  the  Scioto,  where  the  messengers  of  the  allied  tribes  mat  to 
concert  revenge. 

"  Brothers,"  said  the  Delawares  to  the  Miamis,  "  we  desire 
the  English  and  the  Six  Nations  to  put  their  hands  upon  your 
heads,  and  keep  the  French  from  hurting  you.  Stand  fast  in 
the  chain  of  friendship  with  the  government  of  Virginia." 

"  Brothers,"  said  the  Miamis  to  the  English,  "  the  dwellinj^ 
of  your  governors  are  like  the  spring  in  its  bloom." 

"  Brothers,"  they  added  to  the  Six  Nations,  holding  aloft 
a  calumet  ornamented  with  feathers,  "  the  French  and  their 
Indians  have  struck  us,  yet  we  kept  this  pipe  unhurt ; "  and 
they  delivered  it  to  the  Six  Nations,  in  token  of  friendship 
with  them  and  with  their  allies. 

A  shell  and  a  string  of  black  wampum  were  given  to  signify 
the  unity  of  heart ;  and  that,  though  it  was  darkness  to  the 
westward,  yet  toward  the  sun-rising  it  was  bright  and  clear. 
Another  string  of  black  wampum  announced  that  the  Miamis 
held  the  hatchet  in  their  hand,  ready  to  strike  the  French. 
The  widowed  queen  of  the  Piankeshaws  sent  a  belt  of  black 
shells  intermixed  with  white.  "Brothers,"  such  wire  her 
words,  "  I  am  left  a  poor,  lonely  woman,  with  one  son ;  I  pray 
the  English,  the  Six  Nations,  the  Shawnees,  and  the  Dela- 
wares to  take  care  of  him." 

The  Weas  produced  a  calumet.  "We  have  had  this  feath- 
ered pipe,"  said  they,  "  from  the  beginning  of  the  world ;  so 
that,  when  it  becomes  cloudy,  we  can  sweep  the  clouds  away. 
It  is  dark  in  the  west ;  yet  we  sweep  all  clouds  away  toward 
the  sun-rising,  and  leave  a  clear  and  serene  sky." 

All  the  speeches  were  repeated  to  the  deputies  of  the  na- 
tions represented  at  Logstown,  that  they  might  be  pronounced 
correctly  before  the  council  at  Onondaga.  A  messenger  from 
the  Miamis  hurried  across  the  mountains,  bearing  to  Dinwid- 
dle, the  able  lieutenant-governor  of  Yirginia,  a  belt  of  wam- 
pum, the  scalp  of  a  French  Indian,  and  a  feathered  pipe,  with 
letters  from  the  dwellers  on  the  Maumee  and  on  the  Wabash. 
"  Our  good  brothers  of  Virginia,"  said  the  formerj  "  we  must 


ij] 


1762-1753.  AMERICA  RESISTS  ARBITRARY  INSTRUCTIONS.  373 

look  upon  ourselves  as  lost,  if  our  brothers,  the  English  do  not 
s^and  by  us  and  give  us  am.s."  "Eldest  bUer,"  pi  aied  'he 
Rets  and  Windaws,  "this  string  of  wampum  as^Jes  you  that 

he'  Stf  ^h'  T'"''  '^^^  ^P^"^^  '-  ^^-^'  -d  eaten 
he  flesh  of  three  of  our  men.     Look  upon  us,  and  pity  us  • 

or  we  are  m  gi-eat  distress.  Our  chiefs  have  taken  up  the 
hatchet  of  war  We  have  killed  and  eaten  ten  of  the  French 
and  two  of  their  negroes.     We  are  youi^  brothers  » 

In  December  1752,  Dinwiddle  made  an  elaborate  report  to 
the  board  of  trade,  and  asked  instructions  as  to  his  conduct  n 
resistmg  the  French.  The  Ohio  valley  he  foresaw  would  fa 
to  the  Americans  from  the  gradual  extension  of  their  sot  1 
ments,  for  whose  security  he  recommended  a  barrier  of  weste,^ 
forts  and  an  alliance  with  the  Miamis 

tho^vTl""'^  undisceraing  German  prince  who  still  sat  on 
the  British  throne,  methodically  narrow,  meanly  avaricious  and 
spmtless,  cared  more  for  Hanover  than  for  AmLa  1" 
.sters  were  intent  only  on  keeping  in  power.  "  To  be  wdHd 
gether  with  Lady  Yaionouth,"  PeDiam  Lte,  "  is  the  bestrround 
to  stand  on/'    "If  the good^vi'll  of  the  kin^s  m  stresT^^^^^^^^^ 

ot  state,     we  have  no  resource."     The  whig  aristocracv  had 
..ed  for  nearly  forty  years,  and  it  had  nothing  betteTtToff:' 
1  e  Bntish  people  than  an  administration  which  openly  spoke 
of  seats  m  pariiament  as  "a  marketable  commodity,"  and  gov 
emed  the  king  by  paying  comi  to  his  vices.  ^ 

Ihe  heir  to  the  throne  was  a  boy  of  fourteen  of  who<,e 
education  royalists  and  the  more  libeL  aristocl^.  ^  d " 

m  S  bv     n         ^"l -West  sister;  and  his  organization  was 
<  Ho  shn  ^       T"'''  :^"*''^^^J%'  ^^'I"«i^  increased  with  years. 

to  Is  mother  ^"-"^  ''  T^"^^  ^^^^^^'"  -WMington 
s    wZ   tili     -fV]  "  ^'^y^^onest  boy,"  answered  the  p'rin- 

ces^  who  still  Mashed  him  "more  forward  and  less  childish." 

Ihe  young  people  of  quality,"  she  added,  "are  so  ill-educated 

IIIT"  ''''  *^^^^>^^ten  me;"  and  she  secluded 

ture  f  r  fll'"'''''?'-     The  prince,  from  his  own  serious 

nature,  favored  this  retirement;  when  angrv,  he  would  hide 

iii«  passion  m  the  solitude  of  his  chamber;  and,  a.  he  grew  up 


;  f  n 


i  1 


1  ^      , 

'in 

1' 

1     Y:      .. 

MH  t 


m  I 


374    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST   AND   CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  oh.  iv. 

his  strict  sobriety  and  fondness  for  domestic  life  were  alike 
observable.  He  never  loved  study.  "  I  am  afraid,"  said  Iiis 
mother,  "  his  preceptors  teach  him  not  much."  "  I  do  not 
much  regard  books,"  rejoined  her  adviser,  Dodington ;  ^'  but 
his  royal  highness  should  be  informed  of  the  general  franio  of 
this  government  and  constitution,  and  the  general  course  of 
business."  "I  nm  of  your  opinion,"  answered  the  princess. 
"  I  know  nothing,"  she  added,  "  of  the  Jacobitism  attempted 
to  be  instilled  into  the  child;  I  cannot  conceive  what  they 
mean."  But  Lord  Ilarcourt,  the  governor,  "  complained 
strongly  to  the  king  that  arbitrary  principles  were  instilled 
into  the  prince ; "  and  the  earl  of  Waldcgrave,  Ilarcourt's  suc- 
cessoi",  "found  Prince  George  uncommonly  full  of  princely 
prejudices,  contracted  in  the  nursery,  and  improved  by  the 
society  of  bed-chamber  women  and  pages  of  the  back  stairs. 
A  right  system  of  education  seemed  impracticable." 

In  January  1753,  the  connnunication  of  Dinwiddie  found 
the  lords  of  trade  bent  on  sustaining  the  extended  limits  of 
xVmerica.  In  the  study  of  the  western  world,  no  one  of  them 
was  so  indefatigable  as  Charles  Townshend.  The  elaborate 
memorial  on  the  limits  of  Acadia,  doHvered  in  Paris  by  the 
Enghsh  commissioners  that  month,  was  entirely  his  work,  and, 
though  unsound  in  its  foundation,  won  for  him  great  praise  for 
research  and  ability.  He  now  joined  his  colleagues  in  advising 
the  immediate  occupation  of  the  eastern  banlc  of  the  Ohio. 

Many  proposals  were  "made  for  laying  taxes  on  North 
America."  The  beard  of  trade  still  urged  "a  revenue  with 
which  to  fix  settled  salaries  on  the  northern  governors,  and 
defray  the  cost  of  Indian  alliances."  "  Persons  of  conseciuence 
repeatedly,  and  without  concealment,  exj^ressed  undigested  no- 
tions of  raising  revenues  out  of  the  colonies."  Some  proposed 
to  obtain  them  from  the  post-office,  a  modification  of  the  acts 
of  trade,  and  a  general  stamp  act  for  America.  "With  Polhani's 
concurrence,  the  board  of  trade,  on  the  eighth  day  of  March 
1753,  announced  to  the  house  of  commons  the  want  of  a  colo- 
nial revenue ;  and,  as  the  first  expedient,  pro])osed  imposts  on 
all  West  Indian  produce  brought  into  the  northern  colonies. 
The  project  was  delayed  only  for  the  adjustment  of  its  details. 

Meantime,  at  "Winchester,  in  1753,  a  hundred  Indians  ot 


EP.  I. ;    OH.  JV. 


1753.     AMERICA  RESISTS  ARBITRARY  INSTRUCTIONS.      375 

Oliio  renewed  to  Yirginia  the  proposal  for  an  English  fort  on 
the  Ohio,  and  promised  aid  in  repelling  the  Irench.     They  re- 
paired to  Pennsylvania  with  the  same  message,  and  were  met 
by  evasions.     The  ministiy,  which  had,  from  the  first,  endeav- 
ored to  put  upon  America  the  expenses  of  Indian  treaties  and 
of  colonial  defence,  continued  to  receive  early  and  accurate  in- 
telhgence  from  Dinwiddle.     The  king  in  council,  swayed  by 
the  representations  of  the  board,  decided  that  the  valley  of  the 
Oluo  was  in  the  western  part  of  the  colony  of  Virginia;  and 
that  "the  march  of  certain  Europeans  to  erect  a  fort  in  parts" 
of  liis  dominions  was  to  be  resisted;  but  the  cabinet,  with 
lluldernesse  and  ]S-ewcastle  for  its  guides,  took  no  effective 
measures  to  support  the  decree.     It  only  instructed  Virginia, 
at  Its  own  cost  and  with  its  own  militia,  to  build  forts  on  the 
Ohio,  to  keep  the  Indians  in  subjection,  and   to  repel  the 
French  by  force.     France  was  defied  and  attacked,  with  no 
preparation  beyond  a  secretary's  letters  and  the  king's  instruc- 
tions.  A  circular  was  sent  to  every  one  of  the  colonies,  vaguely 
requiring  them  to  aid  each  other  in  repelling  all  encroachments 
of  Fran,    on  "  the  undoubted  "  territory  of  England. 

This  is  the  time  chosen  l)y  the  board  of  trade  for  the  one  last 
great  effort  to  govern  Ameiica  by  the  prerogative.  New  York 
remained  the  scene  of  the  experiment ;  and  Sir  Danvers  Os- 
borne, brother-in-law  to  the  earl  of  Halifax,  having  Thomas 
Pownall  for  his  secretary,  was  commissioned  as  its  governor, 
with  instructions  which  %/ere  «  advised  "  by  Halifax  and  Charles 
Townshend,  and  were  confirmed  by  the  king  in  council. 

The  new  governor,  just  as  he  was  embarking,  was  charged 
I' to  apply  his  thoughts  very  closely  to  Indian  affairs;"  and, 
in  September,  the  lords  of  trade  directed  commissioners  from 
the  northern  colonies  to  meet  the  next  summer  at  Albany  and 
make  a  common  treaty  with  the  Six  Nations. 

During  the  voyage,  Osborne,  reeling  with  private  grief, 
brooded  despondingly  over  the  task  he  had  assumed.  On  the 
tenth  of  October  1753,  he  took  the  oaths  of  office  at  New 
lork ;  and  the  people,  who  welcomed  him  with  acclamations, 
hooted  his  predecessor.  "  I  expect  the  like  treatment,"  said 
he  to  Clinton,  "  before  I  leave  the  government."  On  the  same 
day  he  was  startled  by  an  address  from  the  city  council,  who 


i  '^ !  r. 


ii  !'i. 


i  1 


; 

!l    ,,: 

I 

v.. 

:  !:        ' 

i;    1: 

■ 

1 

i'       : 

I 

1 

1 

1 

376    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA. 


KP.  I. ;  on.  IV. 


jifcici 


i    1 


1  i!: 


declared  they  would  not  "  brook  any  infringement  of  their  in- 
estimable liberties,  civil  and  religious."     On  the  next,  iic  com- 
municated  to  the   council   his   instructions,  wliich  required 
the  afiseniltly  « to  recede  from  all  encroachments  on  the  pre- 
rogative," and  "  to  consider,  without  delay,  of  a  proper  law 
for  a  permanent  revenue,  solid,  definite,  and  without  Umita- 
tion."    All  public  money  was  to  bo  applied  by  the  governor's 
waiiant,  ^vith  the  consent  of  council,  and  the  assembly  was 
never  to  be  allowed  to  examine  accounts.     Witli  a  distressed 
countenance  and  a  plaintive  voice,  he  asked  if  these  instnic- 
tions  would  be  obeyed.     All  agreed  that  the  assembly  never 
would  comply.     He  sighed,  turned  about,  reclined  against  the 
window-frame,  and  exclaimed  :  "  Then  why  am  I  come  here  ? " 
Being  of  morbid  sensitiveness,  honest,  and  scrupulous  of 
his  word,  the  unhappy  man  spent  the  night  in  arranging  his 
private  affairs,  and  toward   morning  hanged  himself  against 
the  fence  in  the  garden.     His  death  left  the  government  in 
the  hands  of  James  Delancey,  Avhose  neutrality  Newcastle  had 
endeavored  to  conciliate  by  a  commission  as  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor. ^  "  Dissolve  us  as  often  as  you  will,"  said  his  old  asso- 
ciates in  opposition,  "we  will  never  give  up"  the  custom  of 
annual  grants.    But  they  consented  that  all  disbursements  of 
public  money  should  require  the  warrant  of  the  governor  and 
council,  except  only  for  the  payment  of  their  own  clerk  and 
their  agent  in  England.     The  instructions  given  to  Osborne, 
Charles  Townshend  defended  to  the  last ;  but  the  younger 
Horace  Walpole  judged  them  «  better  calculated  for  the  lati- 
tude of  Mexico  and  for  a  Spanish  ti-ibunal  than  for  free,  rich 
British  settleinents,  in  such  opulence  and  haughtiness  that  sus- 
picions had  long  been  conceived  of  their  meditating  to  throw 
off  their  dependence  on  the  mother  country." 

While  Great  Britain  was  thus  marching  toward  the  loss  of 
her  colonies,  the  eari  of  Chesterfield  wrote :  "  This  I  foresee 
in  France,  that,  before  the  end  of  this  century,  the  trade  of 
both  king  and  priest  will  not  be  half  so  good  a  one  as  it  has 
been."  "  All  tlio  symptoms  which  I  have  ever  met  with  in 
history,  previous  to  great  changes  and  revolutions  in  govern- 
ment, now  exist  and  daily  increase  in  France." 


1753.         FRANKLIN  PLANS  AN  AMERICAN  UNION. 


377 


CHAPTER  V. 

frajfkxm  plans  union  fob  the  american  people, 
peluam's  administration  continued. 


HENRY 


1753--I754. 

From  Virginia,  tlie  Ohio  company,  in  1753,  opened  a  road 
by  Will's  creek  into  tlie  western  valley  ;  and  Gist  established 
a  plantation  near  the  Youghiogeny,  just  beyond  Laurel  Hill. 
Eleven  families  settled  in  his  vicinity  ;  a  town  and  fort  were 
marked  out  on  Shurtee's  creek,  but  the  British  government 
left  the  feeble  company  exposed  to  the  red  men  and  to  the 
French. 

The  young  men  of  the  Six  Nations  had  been  hunting  near 
the  rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Suddenly  they  beheld  a  large 
body  of  French  and  Indians,  equipped  for  war,  marching 
toward  Lake  Ontario ;  and  their  two  fleetest  messengers  hur- 
ried to  the  grand  council  at  Onondaga.  In  eight-and-forty  hours 
the  decision  of  the  council  was  borne  by  fresh  posts  to  the 
nearest  English  station  ;  and  on  the  nineteenth  of  April,  at  mid- 
night, the  two  Indians  from  Canajoharie,  escorted  by  Mohawk 
warriors,  that  filled  the  air  with  their  whoops  and  halloos,  pre- 
sented to  Johnson  the  belt  summoning  the  English  to  protect 
tlie  Ohio  Indians  and  the  Miamis.  In  May,  more  than  thirty 
canoes  were  counted  as  they  passed  Oswego  ;  part  of  an  army 
going  to  "  the  Beautiful  River  "  of  the  French.  The  Six  Na- 
tioas  foamed  with  eagerness  to  take  up  vae  hatchet ;  for,  said 
they,  "  Ohio  is  ours." 

On  the  report  that  twelve  hundred  men  had  been  detached 
from  Montreal,  by  Duquesne,  the  successor  of  La  Jonquierc, 
to  occupy  the  Ohio  valley,  the  Indians  on  the  banks  of  that 
river— promiscuous  bands  of  Delawaros,  Shawnees,  and  Miu- 


m  ,ii  i 


<l  i\  ■ 

I    if 


,Tf  ■  if  1  ■  ' 


i  I 


378     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.i.;  on.  y. 

goes,  or  ciiiigriint  Tro(iU()i«— after  a  council  at  Logstown,  ro- 
Bulved  to  protest  u^uinst  the  invasion.  Their  envoy  met  tiie 
French,  in  April,  at  Niagara,  and  gave  them  tlie  first  warnini' 
to  tnr7i  back. 

As  the  message  Hent  from  the  conncil-fires  of  the  tribes  wiw 
unheeded,  Tana^jharisson,  tlio  half-kin^^  repaired  to  them  at 
the  newly  discovered  liarbt)r  of  Erie,  and,  undismayed  by  a 
rude  recei)ti()n,  delivered  his  speech:  "Fathers!  you  are  "(lis- 
turbers  in  this  land,  hy  taking  it  away  unknown  to  us  and  by 
force.  This  is  our  land,  and  no^  yours.  Fathers!  both  you 
and  the  E.iglisii  are  white ;  the  land  ])elongs  to  neither  the  one 
nor  the  other  of  you  ;  but  the  Great  Being  above  allowed  it  to 
Oe  a  dwelling-place  for  us :  so,  fathers,  I  desire  you  to  svith- 
draw,  as  I  have  desired  our  brothers,  the  English;"  and  he 
gave  the  belt  of  wami)um. 

"Child,"  replied  the  French  officer,  "you  talk  foolishly; 
you  pay  this  land  belongs  to  you  ;  but  not  so  much  of  it  as  the 
black  of  your  nail  is  yours.  It  is  my  land ;  and  I  will  have  it, 
let  who  Avill  stand  up  against  it ;"  and  he  threw  back  the  wam- 
pum.    His  words  dismayed  the  half-king. 

In  September,  the  mightiest  men  of  the  Mingo  clan,  of  the 
Delawares,  the  Shawnees,  the  Wyandots,  and  the  Miamis,  met 
Franklin,  of  Pejinsylvauia,  and  his  two  colleagues,  at  Carlisle. 
They  wished  neither  French  nor  English  to  settle  in  their 
country ;  if  the  English  would  lend  aid,  they  would  repel  the 
French.  The  calm  statesman  distributed  presents  to  all,  hut 
especially  gifts  of  condolence  to  the  tribe  that  dwelt  at  Picqua; 
and,  returning  to  Philadelphia,  he  made  known  that  the  French 
had  established  posts  at  Erie,  Waterford,  and  Venango,  and 
were  preparing  to  occupy  the  banks  of  the  Mouongahek. 

Sanctioned  by  orders  from  the  king,  Dinwiddle,  of  Vir- 
ginia, resolved  to  send  "  a  person  of  distinction  to  the  com- 
mander of  the  French  forces  on  the  Ohio  river,  to  know  his 
reasons  for  invading  the  British  dominions,  while  a  solid  peace 
subsisted."  The  envoy  whom  he  selected  was  (Tcorge  Wash- 
ington. The  young  man,  then  just  twenty-one,  familiar  with 
the  wilderness,  entered  with  alacrity  on  the  perilous  winter's 
journey  from  Williamsburg  to  the  streams  of  Lake  Erie. 

In  the  middle  of  J^oveniber,  with  an  interpreter  and  four 


1763.         FRANKLIN  PLANS   AN   AMEHTOAN  UNION.  379 

atteiidaiita,  and  OlirlHtoplior  Gist  as  a  guide,  ho  loft  Will'H 
creek ;  and  following'  the  Iiidia!i  trace  through  gloomy  hoU- 
tuduH,  crossing  mountaiuH,  rocky  ravincH,  and  HtreaniH,  through 
rtloct  and  hiiowh,  lie  rode  in  nine  day.s  to  the  fork  of  the  Ohio. 
How  lonely  was  the  Hpot,  where,  ko  long  uidieeded  of  men,  the 
rapid  Alleghany  met  nearly  at  right  angles  "the  deei)  and 
gtiir'  M(.nongahelal  "I  spent  some  time,"  said  Washington, 
"in  viewing  the  rivers;"  "the  laud  In  the  fork  has  tho  abso- 
lute conmiand  of  both."  "The  flat,  well -timbered  land  all 
around  the  point  lies  very  convenient  for  building."  After 
creating  in  imagiiuition  a  fortress  and  a  city,  he  and  his  party, 
on  tho  twenty-third  of  N'ovond)er  175;],  swam  their  horses 
across  the  Alleghany,  and  wrapped  their  blankets  around  them 
for  the  night  on  its  north-west  bank. 

From  the  fork,  the  chief  of  tho  Dolawarcs  conducted  Wash- 
ington  through  rich  alluvial  fields  to  the  valley  at  Logstown. 
There  deserters  from  Louisiana  discoursed  of  the  route  from 
New  Orleans  to  Quebec,  along  tho  Wabash  and  tho  Maunioe, 
and  of  a  detachment  from  the  lower  provhice  on  its  way  to 
meet  the  French  troops  from  Lake  Erie,  while  Wasliington 
held  close  colloquy  with  tho  lialf-king;  the  one  anxious  to 
gain  the  West  as  a  part  of  Virginia,  the  other  to  i)reservo  it 
for  the  red  men.  "  Wo  are  brothers,"  said  the  half-king,  in 
council ;  "  wo  are  one  people ;  I  will  send  back  the  French 
speech-belt,  and  will  make  the  Shawnees  and  the  Delawares  do 
the  same." 

On  the  night  of  the  twcnty-nintli,  tlie  council-fire  was 
kindled ;  an  aged  orator  was  selected  to  address  the  Froncli ; 
the  speech  whicli  he  was  to  deliver  was  debated  and  re- 
hearsed; it  was  agreed  that,  unless  tho  French  would  heed 
this  third  warning  to  quit  the  land,  the  Delawares  would  bo 
tlieir  enemies;  and  a  very  large  string  of  black  and  white 
wampum  was  sent  to  the  Six  Nations  as  a  prayer  for  aid. 

After  these  preparations,  the  party  of  AVashington,  at- 
tended by  the  half-king  and  envoys  of  the  Delawares,  moved 
onward  to  the  French  at  Yenango.  The  officers  there  avowed 
the  purpose  of  taking  possession  of  the  Ohio ;  and  they  min- 
ified the  praises  of  La  Salle  with  boasts  of  their  forts  at  Le 
i'ffiuf  and  Erie,  at  Niagara,  Toronto,  and  Frontenac.     "  Tho 


i:  1   I 


M  ri' 


1 
1 

tit 

i;        ,  ■• 

i.   JlJ: 

1  1     ■ 

■  ;        h  ■ 

!:  ■  I- 

!, 

ii 


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I! 


■HI 

1 

i  • 

! 

380     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    bp.,.;  on.  v. 

EtifrliHli,'!  Hiiid  tho;.',  "can  miso  two  men  to  our  one;  hut  tlu-y 
aro  too  dilatory  to  prevent  any  onterpriw  of  ours."  The  Dela- 
wares  wero  intimidated;  hut  the  half-kiufr  dung  to  VVaHli- 
ington  like  a  brotJior,  and  delivered  up  his  belt  as  ho  had 
promised. 

The  erceks  were  swollen  ;  the  messengers  could  pjwH  theni 
only  hy  felling  trees  for  bridges.  Tims  they  proceeded,  now 
kdling  a  I)uck  and  now  a  bear,  delayed  by  rains  and  snows  l)y 
miro  and  swamps,  while  Wii^hingt-n's  quici.  eye  discerned  all 
the  richness  of  the  meadows. 

At  Waterford,  the  limit  of  his  journey,  he  found  Fort  Lo 
BcEuf  defended  by  cannon.     Around  it  stood  the  barracks  of 
the  soldiers,  rude  log  cabins,  roofed  with  bark.     Fifty  birch- 
bark  canoes,  and  one  hundred  and  seventy  boats  of  pine  were 
already  constructed  for  the  descent  of  the  river,  and  materials 
were  collected  for  building  more.     The  connnander,  (lardeur 
de  Saint-Pierre,  an  officer  of  integrity  and  exi)erience,  and  for 
his  dauntless  courage  both  feared  and  beloved  by  the  red  men, 
refused  to  discuss  cpiestions  of  right.     "I  am  here,"  said  he' 
"by  the  orders  of  my  general,  to  which  I  shall  confonn  with' 
exactness."    And  ho  avowed  his  i)urpo8e  of  seizing  every  En<f- 
hshman  within  the  Ohio  valley.  " 

Breaking  away  from  courtesies,  Washington  hastened  home- 
ward.    The  rapid  current  of  French  creek  dashed  his  party 
against  rocks ;  in  shallow  places  they  waded,  the  water  con- 
gealing on  their  clothes;    where  the  ice  had  lodged  on  the 
liend  of  the  rivers,  they  carried  their  canoe  across  the  neck. 
At  Venango,  they  found  their  horses,  but  so  weak  that  tliey 
went  still  on  foot,  heedless  of  the  storm.     The  cold  increased 
very  fast;  the  path;  -row  "worse  by  a  deep  snow  continually 
freezing."     Impatient  t.>  j,v,t  back  -./it:!  his  despatches,  the 
young  envoy,  wn,,)|)iag  hiiu-lf  In  an  Indian  dress,  with  gnn 
in  hand  and  pack  on  his  bad    the  day  after  Christmas  quitted 
the  usual  path,  and,  with  Gist  for  his  sole  companion,  stc  M 
by  the  compass  for  the  fork.     An  Indian,  who  had  lain     i 
waitfor  him,  fired  at  him  from  not  fifteen  steps'  distance,  but. 
nussmg  him,  became  his  prisoner.    "  J  would  have  killed  him," 
wrote  Gist,  "but  Washington  forbade."    Dismissing  their  cap- 
tive at  night,  they  walked  about  half  a  mile,  then  kindled  a 


1764.         FRANKLIN   PLANS   AN   AMERICAN  UNION.  881 

tiro,  fi.xed  tlieir  coui-s    by  the  compiwH,  aiul  (.<,ntinu(...|  travel- 
linf^  all  night,  and  all  the  next  day,  till  .,.,ite  dark      (),dy 
then  did  they ''think  theniHolvoa  Bafe  emm-h  to  Hleep •"  and 
thoy  took  their  rent,  with  n..  nhelter  but  the  leafless  fcrest-treo. 
On  reaching  the  Alleghany,  with  one  ,,<„>r  hatehet  an.l  a 
whole  day  h  work,  a  raft  wiw  constructed  and  launched      But 
before  they  were  half  over  the  river,  they  were  caught  in  M,o 
nmuing  ice.     Putting  out  the  setting-pole  to  Btop  the  raft, 
A\  ashington  was  jerked  into  the  deep  water,  and  naved  hiiu- 
Hol   only  by  grasping  at  the  raft-logs.     They  were  obliged  to 
.Make  tor  an  island.     There  lay  Washington  imprisoned  by  the 
dements;  but  the  December  night  waa  intensely  col.l  and  in 
the  morning  he  found  the  river  frozen.     Not  till  he  reached 
Gist's  settlement,  in  January  1754,  were  his  toils  lightened 

His  report  was  followed  by  immediate  activity.  ''Ah  officer 
appointed  by  Dinwiddle,  having  enlisted  al,(,ut  seventy  men 
vvost  of  the  mountains,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  rndians,"  began 
building  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  Monongahela,  on  ground 
winch  had  already  been  occupied  by  the  Ohio  company      A 
Ireiich  officer,  appearing  at  Logstown,  threatened  death  to  the 
■subordinates  of  the  Six  Nations,  and  to  their  English  allies; 
and  the  speaker  of  the  Indians  retorted  words  of  defiance! 
Tlie  Virginia  house  of  burgesses,  relying  on  the  king  to  pro- 
tect the  boundary  of  his  dominions,  applied  to  that  purpose  a 
loan  of  ten  thousand  pounds,  taking  care  to  place  the  disbnrse- 
inent  of  the  money  under  the  superintendence  of  their  own 
coirunittee.     Washington,  who  for  a  time  had  been  stationed 
at  Alexandria  to  enlist  recniits,  received  from  Dinwiddie  a 
coraniission  as  lieutenant-colonel  and  orders,  with  one  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  to  take  command  at  the  fork  of  the  Ohio ;  "  to 
finisii  the  fort  already  begun  there  by  the  Ohio  company;" 
and  "to  make  prisoners,  kill,  or  destroy  all  wlio  internipted 
the  English  settlements."     Officers  and  men  were  promised 
two  hundred  thousand  acres  on  the  Ohio,  to  be  divided  amon^^ 
them.  ° 

North  Carolina  voted  for  the  service  twelve  thousand 
pounds  of  its  paper  money,  most  of  which  was  expended  use- 
lessly. Maryland  accomplished  nothing,  for  a  diminution  of 
the  pri^^lcgcs  of  its  proprietary  was  the  eouditiou  on  which 


w 


•»Mi 


1 

1i- 

A  'l,^■   -, 

I'  f 


I  ; 


382     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST   AND  CANADA. 


KP.  I. ;  cii.  V. 


I  '-■•'«t| 


alone  it  was  willing  to  give  aid.  Massacliusetts,  with  the 
Frencli  on  ics  eastern  frontier  and  at  Crown  Point,  voted  nei- 
ther money  nor  troops.  Pennsylvania,  like  Maryland,  fell 
into  strife  Avitli  its  proprietaries,  and,  incensed  at  their  parsi- 
mony, at  that  time  perfected  no  grant,  altliough  the  French 
were  within  its  borders.  In  April,  the  assembly  of  N^ew 
York  voted  a  thousand  pounds  to  Virginia,  but  decHned  assist- 
ing to  repel  the  French  from  a  post  which  lay  within  Pennsyl- 
vania. The  assembly  of  New  Jersey  would  not  even  send 
commissioners  to  a  congress  at  Albany. 

In  England  it  was  the  "  opinion  (»f  the  greatest  men  "  tliat 
the  colonies  should  contribute  jointly  toward  their  defence. 
How  to  unite  them  occupied  many  minds  on  each  side  of  the 
water.  Glen,  the  governor  of  South  Carolina,  proposed  a 
meeting,  in  Virginia,  of  all  the  continental  governors,  to  ad- 
just a  (piota  from  each  colony  for  defence  on  tlie  Ohio.  "Tlie 
assembly  of  this  Dominion,"  observed  Dinwiddle,  "  will  not 
be  directed  what  suj^plies  to  grant,  and  will  always  be  guided 
by  their  o\vn  free  determinations ;  they  would  think  any  re- 
straint or  direction  an  insult  on  their  privileges,  that  they  are 
so  very  fond  of."  "  The  house  of  burgesses,"  he  complained, 
"  were  in  a  republican  way  of  thinking ; "  no  power  within 
the  colony  could  "  bring  them  to  order." 

The  province  of  Massachusetts  had  never  intnisted  its  affairs 
to  a  set  of  men  of  so  little  wariness  and  fo.-esight  as  tlie  coimcil 
and  assembly  of  1754.  In  an  address  to  Shirley,  their  governor, 
they  adopted  recommendations  of  Hutchinson  and  Oh'ver. 
Soliciting  the  king,  that  the  French  forts  within  his  terntorios 
might  be  removed,  they  said :  "  The  French  have  Init  one  in- 
terest ;  the  English  governments  are  disunited ;  some  of  them 
have  their  frontiers  covered  by  their  .e-'ghboring  governments, 
and,  not  being  immediately  aifccted,  seem  unconcerned." 
"  We  are  very  sensible  of  the  necessity  of  the  colonies  afford- 
ing each  other  mutual  assistance  ;  and  we  make  no  doubt  liut 
this  pro\ance  will,  at  all  times,  with  great  cheerfulness,  furnish 
their  just  and  reasonable  quota  toward  it."  Shirley  made  use 
of  these  words  to  renew  the  ad^nce  which  he  had  urged  six 
years  before.  lUs  counsels,  which  were  now,  in  some  sense, 
the  echo  of  the  thouglits  of  his  superiors,  were  cited  ;is  conchi- 


.      EP.  I.  ;   cil.  V. 

itts,  with  the 
int,  voted  nei- 
laryland,  fell 
at  their  parsi- 
h  the  French 
ibly  of  New 
eclined  assist- 
thiu  Pennsjl- 
ot  even  send 

3st  men  "  tliat 
heir  defence. 
ih  side  of  the 
,  proposed  a 
2rnors,  to  ad- 
Ohio.  "Tlio 
ie,  "  will  not 
lys  be  guided 
think  any  re- 
that  they  arc 
i  complained, 
lower  within 

;tcd  its  affairs 
IS  tlie  council 
eir  i>;overnor, 

and  Oliver. 
[lis  terntorios 
i  but  one  in- 
3me  of  theta 
i^overnnients, 
nconcerned." 
Ionics  alford- 
K)  doubt  l)ut 
[ness,  furnish 
ley  made  use 
ad  urged  six 

some  sense, 
:>d  as  conchi- 


1754.         FRANKLIN  PLANS  AN  AMERICAN  UNION.  333 

sive;  and  he  repeatedly  assured  the  ministry  that,  unless  the 
kmg  should  himself  determine  for  each  colony  its  quota  of 
men  or  money,  and  unless  the  colonies  should  be  obliged  in 
some  effectual  manner,  to  conform  to  that  determination,  there 
could  be  no  general  plan  for  the  defence  of  America 

"  A  gentle  land-tax,  being  the  most  ecputable,  must  be  our 
last  resort,  said  Kennedy,  through  the  press  of  No^y  York 
and  of  London.  He  looked  to  the  congress  at  Albany  with 
Jiope,  I)ut  his  dependence  was  on  parliament ;  for  «  with  parlia 
mcnt  there  would  be  no  contending.  And  when  their  liands 
are  m,  he  added,  "they  may  lay  the  foundation  of  a  recn.lar 
government  among  us,  by  fixing  a  support  for  the  office  of 
the  crown,  mdependent  of  an  assembly  ? " 

James  Alexander,  of  New  York,  the  same  who,  with  the 
elder  ^\  ilham  Smith,  had  introduced  the  custom  of  grantin<^ 
but  an  annual  support,  thought  that  the  British  parliament 
should  establish  the  duties  for  a  colonial  revenue,  which  the 
future  American  grand  council,  to  be  composed  of  deputies 
trom  all  the  provinces,  should  have  no  power  to  diminish  The 
members  of  the  grand  council  may  themselves  become  danger- 
ous, reasoned  the  royalist  Golden,  who  saw  no  mode  of  obtain- 
mg  the  necessary  funds  but  by  parliamentary  taxation.  IJut 
I'rankhn  having  for  his  motto,  "Join  or  die,''  sketched  to  his 
Inends  the  outline  of  a  confederacy  which  should  truly  repre- 
sent the  whole  American  people. 

The  British  ministry  as  yet  did  nothing  but  order  the  inde- 
pendent companies,  stationed  at  New  York  and  at  Charleston 
to  take  part  in  defence  of  western  Virginia.  But  as  soon  as 
«pnng  opened  the  western  rivers,  and  before  Washington  could 
reach  Will's  creek,  the  French,  led  by  Contreca.ir,  came  down 
trom  \enango  and  summoned  the  English  at  the  fork  to  siir- 
midor.  Only  thirty-three  in  nuniber,  they,  on  the  seventeenth 
ot  April,  capitulated  and  withdrew.  Oontrecoeur  occuiued  the 
post,  which  he  fortified,  and,  from  the  governor  of  New 
iM-ance,  named  Duquesne.  The  near  forest-trees  were  felled 
and  burned;  cabins  of  bark,  for  barracks,  M-ere  buih  round  the 
tort ;  and  among  the  charred  stumps  wheat  and  maize  surunir 
up  where  now  is  Pittsburg. 

''  Come  to  our  assistance  as  soon  as  you  can,"  was  the  iae&- 


ilMit. 


;•) 


I) 


ii^ 


384    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA. 


KP.  I.  ;   CH,  T. 


Ili 


sage  sent  by  the  half -Icing's  wampum  to  Washington ;  "  come 
soon,  or  we  are  lost,  and  shall  never  meet  again.  I  speak  it  in 
the  grief  of  my  heart."  And  a  belt  in  reply  announced  the 
approach  of  the  half -king's  "  brother  and  friend."  The  raw 
recruits  could  advance  but  slowly,  fording  deep  streams,  and 
dragging  their  few  cannon.  In  the  cold  and  wet  season,  they 
were  without  tents,  without  a  supply  of  clothes,  often  in  want 
of  provisions.  On  the  twenty-fifth  of  May  1754,  the  half -king 
sent  word :  "  Be  on  your  guard ;  the  French  army  intend  to 
strike  the  first  English  whom  they  shall  see." 

The  same  day  another  report  came,  that  the  French  were 
but  eighteen  miles  distant,  at  the  crossing  of  the  Youghiogeny. 
Washington  hurried  to  the  Great  Meadows,  where,  "  with  na- 
ture's assistance,  he  made  a  good  intrenchment,  and  prepared  " 
what  he  called  "  a  charming  field  for  an  encounter."  A  small 
hght  detachment,  sent  out  on  wagon-horses  to  reconnoitre,  re- 
turned without  being  able  to  find  any  one.  By  the  niles  of 
wilderness  warfare,  a  party  that  skulks  and  hides  is  an  enemy. 
At  night  the  little  arjiiy  was  alanned,  and  remained  under  arms 
from  two  o'clock  till  near  sunrise.  On  the  morning  of  the 
twenty-seventh.  Gist  arrived.  He  had  seen  the  trail  of  the 
French  within  five  miles  of  the  American  camp. 

In  the  evening  of  that  day,  about  nine  o'clock,  an  express 
came  from  the  half -king,  that  the  armed  body  of  the  French 
was  not  far  off.  Through  a  heavy  rain,  in  a  night  as  dark  as 
can  be  conceived,  with  but  forty  men,  marching  in  single  file 
along  a  most  narrow  trace,  Washington  groped  his  way  to  the 
camp  of  the  half-king.  After  council,  it  was  agreed  to  go  hand 
in  hand  and  strike  the  invaders.  Two  Indians,  following  the 
trail  of  the  Frencli,  discovered  their  lodgement,  away  from  the 
path,  concealed  among  rocks.  With  the  Mingo  chiefs  Wash- 
ington made  arrangements  to  come  upon  them  by  surprise. 
Perceiving  the  English  ap])roach,  they  ran  to  seize  their  arms. 
"  Fire  !  "  said  Washington  ;  and  that  word  of  command  kindled 
the  first  great  war  of  revolution. 

An  action  of  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  ensued.  The  right 
wing,  where  Washington  stood,  received  all  tlie  enemy's  fire. 
One  man  was  killed  near  him,  and  tliree  others  wounded.  "I 
fortunately  escaped  without  any  wound,"  wrote  Washington  to 


1754. 


FRANKLIN  PLANS  AN  AMERICAN  UNION. 


385 

his  brother;  and  in  a  postscript  these  words  escaped  him  •  "I 
heard  the  bu  lets  whistln  'ln/^  i,  r  >       t"^^""".     i 

,.l,.,r>nino-  i„  »  ,7   ^  '  '"''"'™  ""•  "'«■*  «  something 

cbarmmg  m  the  sound."  Ten  of  the  French  were  killed 
among  them  Jn.nonville,  the  eommander  of  the  partyT  nd 
twenty-one  were  ,„ade  prisoner.  The  dead  were  scalped  W 
the  ndmns ;  and  the  chieftain,  Monacawaehe,  bore  a  Jlp  and 
a  h  tcliet  to  each  of  the  tribes  of  the  Mia,ni.;inviting  them  to 
go  !-<)."  hand  with  the  Six  Nations  and  the  Englil 

While  Washington  was  looking  wistfully  for  aid  from  the 

Ma  yland  and  Pennsylvania,  from  all  the  six  provinces  to 
which  appeals  had  been  made,  no  relief  arrived  1" 
pendent  conipa.^y  came,  indeed,  from  South  Carolina;  but  t 
aptam,  proud  of  his  commission  from  the  king,  wmngkd  f^ 
precedence  over  the  liciitenant-colonel  of  the  VirgiiSa  re.^ 
m  nt,  and  remained  in  idleness  at  Great  Meadows  "  from  ofe 
hill  moon  to  the  other."  e-.ooiis    iiom  one 

As  the  numbei-s  of  the  French  were  constantly  increasino- 
Wa;  nngton,  on  the  first  day  of  July,  fell  back  uL  Fort  N? 
«ss.y,the  rndo  stockade  at  Great  Meadows.    On  the  ftw 
about  noon  SIX  liundred  Fi-cnch,  with  one  hundred  Infas' 

"iT  "'It '"'"/'■'""  ■'"""""'  "°^"--  «-d  »   he^- 

ta   k     d'    1  vni  ""  f  ""'  'r'  "'™  "'  "-  F-nch  had 
,  f  „r  1  "'  '""'''"S-  '''s  ammunition  would  give 

:^ZZl!l'%  ''r'  fo-'.o  cessation  of  hostil 
Cl      1  r      •  !"  ^^"'^'''"g'™'  ^rf'o   'lid    not  iindemand 
icnch    and,  a.s  interpreted,  were  accepted.     On  the  fourth 

^^c»  withdrew  from  the  basin  of  the  Ohio     In  the  valley  of 
t-   Mississippi  no  standard  floated  but  that  of  Fran»        ''^ 

.la,-  &" mf '■"  *'■:,"  f',"""^-    T1-™.  on  the  nineteenth 
>H)       Jnne  l,o4,  assembled  the  memorable  couo-ress  of  com 
ssiouers  from  every  colony  north  of  the  Potoma      tI  Vi;: 

Cy'XTer;'  ™;  """"■""'*  "^  "■"  "'■-"'"«  °ffl-:- » - 

"iiitcy,  tlio  lieuteuaut-ffovernor  of  N"e\v  Y.irl-      T].„ 

:;r  x  T  i,  "■*■;?■•  --^ '° '^•'  ^^^'^^2 

«mbly  BO  >euerable  for  the  states  that  wore  represented,  or 


i  f 


I    i; 


*  f  I 


'  '    '    KKli 


380     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA. 


KP.  I.  ;   OH.  V. 


M 


iMiii 


for  the  great  and  able  men  who  composed  it.  Every  voice  de- 
clared a  union  of  all  the  colonies  to  be  absolutely  necessary  • 
and  the  experienced  Hutchinson,  of  Massachusetts,  proud  of 
having  rescued  that  colony  from  thraldom  to  paper  money  • 
Hopkins,  a  i)atriot  of  Rliode  Island;  the  wise  and  faithful 
Pitkin,  of  Connecticut;  Tasker,  of  Maryland;  the  liberal 
Smith,  of  New  York ;  and  Franklin,  the  most  benignant  of 
statesmen — were  deputed  to  prepare  a  constitution  for  a  per- 
petual confederacy  of  the  continent ;  l)ut  Franklin  had  alreadv 
''  projected  "  a  plan,  and  had  brought  the  heads  of  it  with  him. 

The  representativ  es  of  the  Six  Nations  assembled  tardily, 
but  urged  union  and  action.  They  accepted  the  tokens  of 
peace ;  they  agreed  to  look  upon  "  Virginia  and  Carolina  "  as 
present.  "  You  desired  us  to  open  our  minds  and  hearts  to 
you,"  said  Ilendrick,  tlie  great  Mohawk  chief.  "  Look  at  the 
French ;  they  are  men  ;  they  are  fortifying  everywhere.  But, 
we  are  ashamed  to  say  it,  you  are  like  women,  without  any 
fortifications.  It  is  but  one  step  from  Canada  hither,  and  the 
French  may  easily  come  and  turn  you  out  of  doors." 

The  distmst  of  the  Six  Nations  was  still  stronger  than  was 
expressed.  Though  presents  in  unusual  abundance  had  been 
provided,  and  a  general  invitation  had  been  given,  but  one 
hundred  and  fifty  warriors  appeared.  Half  of  the  Onondagas 
had  withdrawn,  and  joined  the  settlement  formed  at  Oswegat- 
chie  under  French  auspices.  Even  Mohawks  went  to  the  dele- 
gates from  Massachusetts  to  complain  that  the  ground  on  which 
they  slept,  and  where  burned  the  fires  by  which  they  sat,  had 
never  been  sold,  l)ut  had  yet  been  surveyed  and  stolen  from 
them  in  the  night.  The  lands  on  the  Ohio  they  called  their 
own ;  and,  as  Connecticut,  ^vhose  jurisdiction,  by  its  charter, 
extended  west  to  the  Pacific,  was  claiming  a  part  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, they  advised  the  respective  claimants  to  remain  at  peace. 

The  red  men  having  held  their  last  council,  and  the  con- 
gress, by  its  jiresident,  having  spoken  to  them  farewell,  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  federative  compact  was  renewed  ;  and,  the  pro- 
ject of  Franklin  being  accepted,  he  was  deputed  alone  to  make 
a  draught  of  it.  On  the  tenth  day  of  July,  he  produced  the 
finished  plan  of  perpetual  union,  whicli  was  read  paragraph  by 
ptu'agraph,  and  debated  all  day  long. 


1754.         FRANKLIN  PLANS  AN  AMERICAN  UNION.  337 

The  seat  of  the  proposer!  federal  government  was  to  be 
Pill  adelphia,  a  central  city,  which  it  was  thought  could  be 
reached  even  from  New  Hampshire  or  South  Carolina  in  fif- 
een  or  twenty  days.     The  constitution  was  a  compromise  be- 
tween the  prerogative  and  popular  power.     The  king  was  to 
name  anu  to  support  a  governor-general,  who  should  have  a 
negative  on  all  laws;  the  people  of  the  colonies,  through  their 
legislatures    were  to  elect  triennially  a  grand  eounciC  which 
alone  could  ongmate  bills.     Each  colony  was  to  send  a  number 
of  members  m  proportion  to  its  contributions,  yet  not  less  than 
two,  nor  more  than  seven.    The  governor-general  was  to  no.ni- 
nate  military  oftcers,  subject  to  the  advice  of  the  council 
which,  in  turn,  was  to  nominate  all  civil  officers.    No  monev 
wasto  be  issued  but  by  their  joint  order.     Each  colony  was  to 
retain  Its  domestic  constitution ;  the  federal  government  wa«  to 
regulate  all  relations  of  peace  or  war  with  the  Indians,  affairs 
of  trade,  and  purchases  of  lands  not  ^vithin  the  bounds  of  par- 
ticular colonies ;  to  establish,  organize,  and  temporarily  to  Gov- 
ern new  settlements ;  to  raise  soldiers,  and  equip  Vessels"  of 
force  on  the  seas,  rivers,  or  lakes;  to  make  laws,  and  levy  iust 
and  equal  taxes.     The  grand  council  were  to  meet  once  a  year 
to  choose  their  own  speaker,  and  neither  to  be  dissolved  nor 
prorogued,  nor  to  contimie  sitting  longer  than  six  weeks  at  any 
one  time,  but  by  their  own  consent. 

The  most  sedulous  friend  of  union,  and  "the  principal 
hand  in  forming  the  plan,"  was  Benjamin  FrankUn.     Almost 
every  article  was  contested  l)y  one  or  another.     His  warmest 
supporters  were  the  delegates  from  New  England,  yet  Con- 
necticut feared  the  negative  power  of  the  governor-general. 
On  the  royalist  side,  none  opposed  but  Delancey.     He  would 
liavc  reserved  to  the  colonial  governors  a  negative  on  all  elec- 
tions to  the  grand  council ;  but  it  was  answered  that  the  colo- 
nies would  then  be  virtually  taxed  by  a  congress  of  governors 
Tlie  sources  of  revenue  suggested  in  debate  were  a  duty  on 
spirits  and  a  general  stamp-tax.     At  length,  after  much  debate, 
ni  which  Franklin  manifested  consmnmato  address,  the  com- 
missioners agreed  on  the  proposed  confederacy  "  pretty  unani- 
"lonsly."     «  It  is  not  altogether  to  my  mind,"  said  Franklin, 
giving  an  account  of  the  result,  '"but  it  is  as  I  could  get  it;" 


!- 

.  \':^ 

I 

( 

M 


388     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.;  on.  ^ 

and  copies  were  ordered,  that  every  member  might  "  lay  the 
plan  of  union  before  his  constituents  for  consideration  ; "  and  a 
copy  be  transmitted  to  the  governor  of  each  colony  not  repre- 
sented in  tlie  congress. 

New  England  colonies  in  their  infancy  had  given  birth  to 
a  confederacy.  William  Penn,  in  1697,  had  proposed  an  an- 
nual congress  of  all  the  provinces  on  the  continent  of  America 
with  power  to  regulate  commerce.  Franklin  breathed  life  into 
the  great  idea.  The  people  of  New  York  thronged  about  him 
to  welcome  him  as  the  mover  of  American  uniou. 

Yet  the  system  was  not  altogether  accei)table  either  to 
Great  Britain  or  to  America.  The  fervid  attachment  of  each 
colony  to  its  own  individual  liberties  repelled  the  ovorniling 
inlluence  of  a  central  power.  Connecticut  rejected  it;  even 
New  York  showed  it  little  favor,  and  Pennsylvania  disliked  it ; 
Massachusetts  charged  her  agent  to  oppose  it.  The  board  of 
trade,  on  receiving  the  minutes  of  the  congress,  weio  aston- 
ished at  a  plan  of  general  government  "complete  in  itself." 
Reilecting  men  in  England  dreaded  American  union  as  the 
key-stone  of  independence. 

But,  in  the  mind  of  Franklin,  the  union  assumed  still  more 
majestic  proportions,  and  comprehended  "the  great  country 
back  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains."  lie  directed  attention 
to  the  extreme  richness  of  its  land,  the  healthy  temperature 
of  its  air,  the  mildness  of  its  climate,  and  the  vast  conven- 
ience of  inland  navigation  by  the  lakes  and  rivers.  "  In  less 
than  a  century,"  said  he,  "it  must  l)ecome  a  populous  and 
powerful  dominion."  And  through  Thomas  Po^vnall,  who 
had  been  present  at  Albany  during  the  deliberations  of  the 
congress,  he  advised  the  immediate  organization  of  two  new 
colonies  in  the  "West,  wdth  powers  of  self  direction  and  govern- 
ment like  those  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island :  the  one 
on  Lake  Erie,  the  other  with  its  capital  on  the  banks  of  the 
Scioto. 

The  freedom  of  the  American  colonies,  their  union,  and 
their  extension  through  the  West,  became  the  three  objects  of 
the  remaining  years  of  Franklin.  Heaven,  in  its  mercy,  ga\e 
the  illustrious  statesman  length  of  days,  so  that  he  witnessed 
the  fulfilment  of  his  designs. 


1754. 


THE  OLD  TUIKTEEN  COLONIES. 


389 


CHAPTER  YI. 

THE   OLD   THIRTEEN   OOLOxXIES.       NEWCASTTT^'^    An^^T..x 

.^i-woAblLE  h   ADMES^ISTUATION. 

1754. 

In  1754,  David  Hume,  who  liad  discovered  tlie  hollowness 
of  the  prevmhng  systems  of  thought  iu  Europe,  yet  ^vdthon 

1  hop  ng  for  auy  other  eutlianasia  to  tlie  British  constitution 
thanits  absorption  in  monarchy,  said  of  America,  in  wo  d 
wkch  he  never  need  have  erased,  and  in  a  spirit  which  he 
never  disavowed :  "  The  seeds  of  many  a  noble  s\ate  have  been 
..own  m  chmates  kept  desohite  by  the  wild  manners  of  the  an- 

wmid  for  hberty  and  science."     The  thirteen  American  colo- 
mes,  of  which  the  union  M.as  projected,  contained,  at  that  day, 
about  one  million  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand  win 
habitants,  and  two  hundred  and  sixty-three  thousand  negroes  • 

lis     tLT      1     r:  ^"''f  "^^  t-nty-elght  thousand 
souls.     The  board  of  trade  reckoned  a  few  thousands  more 
and  revisers  of  their  judgment  less.  ' 

welt  in  New  Hampshire,  two  hundred  and  seven  thousand 

n  Massachusetts    thirty-five  thousand  in  Rhode  Island,  and 

0^10  Imndi-ed  and  thirty-three  thousand  in  Connecticut;   in 

sand  st"f.  "^'''''  ^"'"^  ^''"^''*^  '"^  twenty-five  thou- 
Of  the  middle  colonies,  New  York  may  have  had  eighty- 
fto  thousand;  New  Jersey,  seventy-three  thousand;  Pemisyl- 
^  n,a  with  De  aware,  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  thousand ; 
^Maryland  one  hundred  and  four  tliousand:  in  all,  not  fai-  from 
^our  hundred  and  fifty-seven  thousand. 


m 

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31)0    CONQl'KST   OK  TIII<:   WKST    AND   (CANADA,     f.p.  i.;  .^r 


VI. 


Ill  llic  soutluTM  proviiKH's,  wlici-c  lilt!  mild  cliniiifi!  invited 
tM»ii<,n-iiii(s  into  llic  iiifcrior,  mid  \vlicr(>  (lie  crown  buds  wi-ro 
orfcii  (h'cnpicd  on  nuTc^  warrantH  of  siirvcjH  or  even  witliont 
warnints,  tin  re  was  nunn  for  <j;larini;  mistakes  in  llu!  cnuincnv- 
tioiis.  To  Vir«^nniu  may  W.  assi^nicd  ont>,  Iiiindrc'd  and  sixty- 
nVJit  thojisiuid  white  inliahitaiits;  to  North  Carolina,  scarcciy 
k'ss  than  s'iviMitj  thonsand;  t(»  Sonth  Carolina,  I'ortj  ihonsand"; 
to  (ii'or^ia,  not  more  than  live  thousand  ;  to  I  hi'  whole  country 
south  of  the  I'otomac,  two  hinidrcd  and  tiohty-tJireo  tliouHand.* 

*  Till-  rc|ir.'M('Mtii(i,.ii  of  (111-  lioiini  lo  (lie  kiiiij,  foimiKMl  in  part,  (iii  nm.Mlir.nill,' 

iiiiii  iv(iiii,y  of  tii\!ibli'H,  iiu'iiuli'd  Nova  Scoiia,  iiiiil,  luconliii;^  to  Clmli h  in  il,,. 

"  llNtoiTdf  iho  Ikovolt,"  e.-itiinatoil  tlu>  i>o|iiilaii()ii  of  liiitisli  CJoiitiiu-utul  Amer- 
ica, in  ITM,  at 

l,l'.fJ,S!iil  wliii.'s, 
2!ii.',7;is  lilai'ka, 

l,48r),(i;il  Houlrt. 

Tlionins  PowMiilI,  wliosc  broilu-r  was  soeivlMty  to  ihc  board  of  trade,  ndlicriiv 
inor.'  .■iosolv  to  Ihc  liMs  as  llicy  were  mad.-  out,  slatos  tin-  anum  it,  for  tli.-  tl  ir 
i.vn  .'olouirs,  at  on,-  million  two  Innidrrd  an.l  lifty  thousand.  S.t  a  mmmimuIi,! 
most  lunnbly  uddr.-sscd  to  tlu-  sovereigns  (d'  Kurope  on  the  present  state  of  alTiIrs 
lu'tween  the  Old  and  the  N.'w  World.  The  report  of  the  boar.l  of  trade  on  the 
twenty-ninth  of  .\u-ust  ITr..".,  eonslrueled  in  part  from  eonjeetur.-,  makes  the  «holo 
number  of  white  inhabitants  one  million  ami  .sixtv-two  thou,.and.  Shirlev  in  i 
letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Robinson,  tifteentii  of  .Vu^;ust  17r.r.,  writes  that  "the  ui'hahi- 
tants  may  be  now  set  at  .uie  ndllion  two  hundred  thousand  whites  at  least  The 
estimaie  in  the  text  rests  on  the  e.u.sidenition  of  n>any  details  and  opinions  of 
that  day.  prn  ate  journals  ami  letters,  report.s  to  the  board  of  trade,  and  ollieial 
i.apers  of  the  proviueial  ^'ov.unments.  N,.arly  all  are  imperfeet.  The  -'reatest 
d.scrqmney  in  judgments  relates  to  I'ennsylvania  and  th,.  Carolinas.  He  w^u,  like 
Henry  (V  Carey,  in  his  "  Priueiple.  of  I>oli,ieal  l':e.m,.n.v,"  part  iii..  -5,  will 'eon- 
strnot  retn.speelively  general  tables  f,om  the  rule  of  increase  in  Anuuiea,  since 
l,Ou.  wdl  err  *-ery  little.  From  many  ret.n'ns  and  computations  the  annexed 
table  IS  iledueed,  as  some  apjiroxinuition  lo  exactness  : 

rOl'll.ATION    OV   THK    TNITKn    Sr.VTKS,    KUOM    1750    TO    UOlV 
,H^,^  y^'\\\U\  niiK'k.  TotJll 

\'J'}}  .010,,)0(),  2-0,000,  1,2.10,000. 

<;;•,  .b.r,,ooo,  0,50,000,  i,.i'j,-,,ooo. 

.0,  ,;)s.^,ooo,  :n  0,000,  ir.o.^ooo. 

\'j^\  i.v-,i\ooo,  <iti-j,ooo,  '/in-'ooo 

i.9t\  r>,i7,,,>57,  752,0.11),  3;92<»;;i2(;. 

The  estimates  of  the  board  of  tr.ade  in  1714,  on  the  accession  of  George  the  Fir.t. 
HI  1/27.  on  that  of  Geor-e  the  Second,  r.nd  in  175.1,  were,  accordinR  to  Chalmers, 

Uri,  502.000,  78,000,  sSO.OOo. 

I'M,  1,192,S',)6,  292,7;i8,  1,485  034. 


Jiitiiu'Utul  Aiuof- 


1701. 


T».K  OLD  TIIIIITEKN   COLOMKS. 


301 


Tli(«  wlilto  populiitioM  of  any  one  of  live,  or  perliapH  ovoii 
of  nix,  (>f  (he  yVnicricjui  jjroviiiws,  was  «,m'iiter,  Hiii^ly,  tliiiti 
tliiit  of  iill  ("iiMiidii;  iiiid  the  u^'^m-^riiiij  i„  Anioricii  oxcooded 
that  ill  (!uiiada  foiirtt;oii-fold. 

Of  pei'HoiiH  of  African  linua^'o  tlio  lionit!  wan  (tliiofly  dctor- 
iiiin<'d  l)_y  climate.  Now  IIaiiii)sliiro,  MusHaclnisctt.s,  and  Maino 
may  have  had  six  tlioiisaiid  nc^M•ol^s ;  liliodc  Ishind,  four  thoii- 
siiiid  live  hiiiKhvd;  ( Jomiecticiit,  tlirct;  thousand  live  linndrod: 
all  New  Kii^laiid,  therefore,  about  foiirtc'cn  thousand. 

New  York  alone  had  not  fur  from  eleven  thousand  ;  New 
Jersey,  about  half  that  inunbor;  PeriiiHylvania,  witii  Delaware, 
eleven  thousand;  Maryland,  forty-four  thousand:  the  central 
colonics,  collectively,  Heventy-onc  thousand. 

In  Vir<riuia,  there  witre  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  hIx- 
hrii  thousand;  in  North  (Carolina,  i)erlia|)S  more  than  twenty 
thousand;  in  South  (!arolina,  full  forty  thousand;  in  (Jeorj^na, 
iihoiit  two  thoiiHand  :  ho  that  the  country  Hoiith  of  the  Potomac 
may  have  had  one  hundred  and  Heveiity-ei^ht  th(juHand. 

Of  the  southern  ^'rou]),  (}eor<,'ia,  the  asylum  of  misfortune, 
had  been  lani;-uishin<r  under  a  cor|)orat,ion  whose  action  had 
not  equalled  the     .ijnevolence  of  its  desii^nis.     The  cf»uncil  of 
its  trustees  had  ,<rranted  no  le<rislative  rights  to  those  whom 
they  aflsnmed  to  protect,  but,  meetin<r  at  a  London  tavern,  by 
their  own  |)ower  imposed  taxes  on  its  rndiaii  trade.     Industry 
was  disheartened  by  the  entail  of  freeholds;  summer,  extend- 
iiifr  throu<,di  months  not  its  own,  engendered  pestilent  vapors 
from  the  lowlands,  as  they  were  iirst  opened  to  the  snn ;  Amer- 
ican silk  was  admitted  into  London  dnty  free,  but  the  wants  of 
the  wildt!rness  left  no  leisure  to  feed  the  silk-worm  and  reel  its 
tluvad ;  nor  was  the  down  of  the  cotton-plant  as  yet  a  staple  ; 
the  indigent,  for  whom  charity  had  proposed  a  refuge,  niur- 
Hiured  at  an  exile  that  had  its  sorrows;  the  few  men  of  sub- 
stance withdrew  to  Carolina.     In  December  1751,  the  tnistces 
unanimously  desired  to  surrendiT  their  charter;  and,  with  the 
iip])robation  of  the  great  lawyer  Murray,  all  authority  for  two 
years  emanated  from  the  king  alone.     In  1754,  when  the  first 
royal  governor  with  a  royal  council  entei-ed  upon  office,  a  legis- 
lative assembly  convened  under  the  sanction  of  his  commis- 
sion.   The  crown  instituted  the  courts,  and  appointed  execu- 


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'K^.r'K 


392    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kim.;  oa.  vi. 

tivo  officers  aiul  judges,  with  fixed  salaries  paid  by  England  • 
but  the  i)eople,  through  its  representative  body,  and  the  i)rece- 
dents  of  older  co'  nies,  gained  vigor  in  its  infancy  to  restrain 
every  form  of  delegated  power. 

The  people  of  South  Carolina  had  used  every  rnctliod  of  en- 
croaching on  the  executive,  but  they  did  not  excite  English  ie  d- 
ousy  by  manufactures  or  large  illicit  trade ;  and  British  legisla- 
tion waa  ever  lenient  to  their  interests.     In  favor  of  rice,  the 
laws  cf  navigation  were  mitigated;  the  planting  of  indigo 
like  the  production  of  naval  stores,  was  cherished  by  a  bounty 
from  the  British  exche.iuer;  and  they  thought  it  in  return  no 
hardship  to  receive  through  England  even  foreign  manufac- 
tures, which,  by  the  system  of  partial  drawbacks,  came  to 
them  burdened  with  a  tax,  yet  at  a  less  cost  than  to  the  con- 
sumer in   the  metropolis.      They  had  desired  and  had  ob- 
tamed  the  presence  of  troops  to  intimidate  the  wild  tribes  on 
their  frontiei-s,  and  to  overawe  their  slaves.     The  people  were 
yeomen,  owing  the  king  small  quit-rents,  which  could  never 
be  ngorously  exacted ;  the  royal  domain  was  granted  on  easy 
terms ;   and  who  would  disturb  the  adventurer  that,  at  his 
own  will,  built  his  cabin  and  pastured  his  herds  in  savannas 
and  forests  which  had  never  been  owned  in  severalty  ?    The 
slave-merchant  supplied  laborers  on  credit.     Free  from  exces- 
sive taxation,  protected  by  soldiers  in  IJritish  pay,  the  frugal 
planter  enjoyed  the  undivided  returns  of  his  enterprise,  and 
might  double  his  capital  in  three  or  four  years.     The  love  for 
rural  life  prevailed  universally;  the  thrifty  mechanic  aban- 
doned his  workshop,  the  merchant  the  risks  of  the  sea,  to 
plant  estates  of  their  own. 

North  Carolina,  with  nearly  twice  as  many  white  inhabi- 
tants as  its  southern  neighbor,  had  not  one  considerable  vil- 
lage. Its  swamps  near  the  sea  ]>roduced  rice;  its  alluvial 
lands  teemed  with  maize ;  free  labor,  little  aided  by  negroes, 
drew  turpentine  and  tar  from  the  pines  of  its  white,  sandy 
plains ;  a  rapidly  increasing  people  lay  scattered  araon<'  its 
fertile  uplands.  There,  through  the  boundless  wilderness, 
emigrants,  careless  of  the  strifes  of  Europe,  ignorant  of  de- 
ceit, free  from  tithes,  answerable  to  no  master,  fearlessly 
occupied  lands  that  seemed  without  an  o\nicr.     Their  swine 


17ii-t. 


TUE  OLD  THIRTEEN  COLONIES. 


303 


had  tho  ranpfc  of  tlio  forest;  tlio  greenwood  was  the  pasture 
of  their  iintohl  herds.     Their  youn^'  men  trolled  ahnu;  the 
hrooks  tliat  ahoiinded  in  fish,  iind  took  their  sleep  under  the 
forest-tree;  or  trapped  the  beaver;  or,  with  gun  and  pouch, 
hy  m  wait  for  the  deer,  as  it  shiked  its  tliii-st  at  the  nnining 
stream ;  or,  in  small  parties,  rove^l  the  spurs  of  the  Allef^ha- 
nies,  m  quest  of  marketal)le  skins.     When  Artinn-  1  )ol,l,s  '^the 
royal  govenior,  an  author  of  some  repute,  insisted  on  intro- 
(hieing  tlie  king's  prerogative,  the  legislature  did  not  smiple 
to  leave  the  government  unprovided  foi-.     When  lie  attenM)t- 
vd  to  establisii  the  Anghcan  ch.urch,  they  were  ready  to  wel- 
come the  institution  of  pubUc  worship,  if  their  own  vestries 
might  choose  their  ministers.     When   ho  sought  to  collect 
quit-rents  f-om  a  people  who  were  nearly  all  tenants  of  the 
king,  they  deferred  indefinitely  the  adjustment  of  tho  rent- 
roll. 

For  the  Carolinas  and  for  Virginia,  as  well  as  other  royal 
goveniments,  the  king,  under  his  sign  manual,  appointed  the 
govenior  and  the  council;  these  constituted  a  court  of  chan- 
cery ;  the  provincial  judges,  selected  hy  tho  king  or  the  royal 
governor,  held  office  at  the  royal  pleasure;  for  the  courts' of 
vice-admiralty,  the  lords  of  the  admiralty  named  a  judge,  reg- 
ister, and   marshal;   the  commissioners  of  the  customs  ap- 
pomted   the  comptrollers  and  the  collectors,  of  whom  one 
was  stationed  at  each  considerahle  harbor;  the  justices  and 
tlio  niilitia  officers  were  named  by  the  govenior  in  council, 
ihe  freeholders  elected  but  one  branch  of  the  legislature; 
and  here,  as  in  every  royal  government,  the  council  formed 
another.      lu  Virginia  there  was  loss  strife  than  elsewhere 
.etweon  the  executive  and  the  assembly :  partly  because  the 
kmg  l.ad  a  pennanent  revenue  from  quit-rents  and  perpetual 
grants  ;  partly  because  the  governor  resided  in  England,  and 
Mas  careful  that  his  deputy  should  not  hazard  his  sinecure  l>y 
controversy.     Li  consequence,  the  council,  by  its  weight  of 
pei-sonal  character,  gained  unusual  influence.     Tho  church  of 
i^ngland  was  supported  by  legislative  authority,  and  the  ple- 
beian sects  were  as  yet  proscribed ;  but  the  great  extent  of  the 
parities  i^revented  unity  of  public  worship.     Uodford,  when 
'!!  othce,  hud  favored  the  appoiuLment  of  an  Anglican  bishop 


I  a 


1 

i 

"i 

394    CONQUEST  OF  TIIK  WEST  AXD  CANADA,    eim.;  cii.  vi. 

in  America;  hut,  as  liin  dcciHivo  opinion  and  tlio  importunities 
of  Sheriock  and  Si-cker  had  not  ])rcvaiii'd,  tho  liunutiees  were 
filled  hy  priests  ordained  in  Enjj;land,  and  for  tho  most  part 
of  En^disii  hirtli.     The  provinei;  had  not  ono  larf,'e  town;  tlie 
scattered  mode  of  life  made  the  Hystem  of  free  seliools  not 
eii^^il.v  ])ra('ti('ahh'.     Sometimes  tlie  sons  of  wealtliy  i)lantei'8 
repaired  to  Euntpe;  Iiere  and  tliere  a  inan  of  great  leariiiiif, 
some  Scottish  ioyaiisf,  some  exile  around  whom  misfortinie 
spread  a  mysteiT,  sought  safety  and  gave  instruction  in  Vir- 
ginia.     Tlio  country  within  tide-water  was  divided   among 
planters,  who,  in  tho  culture  of   tobacco,  were   favored    l)y 
13ritish    legislation.      Insulated   on  their   large   estates,  they 
were   cordially    hos[)ital)le.      In   the   quiet   of   their   solitary 
life,  unaided  by  an  active  press,  they  learned  from  nature 
what  others  caught  from  philosophy — to  reason  boldly.    Tho 
horse  was  their  pride  ;  the  county  courts,  their  holidays ;  the 
race-course,   their  delight.      On   pennitting   the   increase  of 
ncgi'o   slavery,  opinions   were   nearly   eciually   divided ;   but 
England  \ni\)t  slave-marts  o])en  at  eveiy  court-house,  as  fur, 
at  least,  as  the  South-west  Mountain  :   partly  to  enrich  lier 
slave-mei'cliants ;   i)artly,  by  balancing   the   races,  to  weaken 
the  power  of  colonial  resistance.     The  industry  of  the  Vir- 
ginians did  not  com[)ete  with  tliat  of  the  mother  country; 
they  had  few  mariners,  took  no  part  in  Sim  tisheiies,  and  built 
no  shi]is  for  sale.     British  factors  ])urchased  their  products  and 
furnished  their  supplies,  and  fixed  the  price  of  both.     Their 
connection  with  the  metropolis  was  more  intimate  than  with 
the  northern  colonies.     England  was  tlieir  market  and  their 
storehouse,  and  was  still  called  their  home. 

Yet  tho  prerogative  had  httle  sni>iiort  in  Virgim"a.  Its 
assembly  sent,  Avhen  it  would,  its  own  special  agent  to  Eng- 
land, elected  the  colonial  treasurer,  and  conducted  its  delil)- 
erations  Avith  dignity.  Among  the  inhabitants,  the  pride  of 
individual  freedom  ])aralyzed  royal  influence.  They  were  the 
more  independent  because  they  were  the  oldest  colony,  the 
most  numerous,  the  most  opulent,  and,  in  teiritory,  by  far  the 
most  extensive.  The  property  of  tho  croM-n  in  its  unascer- 
tahied  domain  was  admitted,  yet  they  easily  framed  theories 
that  invested  the  rightful  owmersliip  in  the  colonv  itself.    Its 


1754. 


THE  OLD  TIIIKTEEM  COLONIES. 


805 


pooplo  Hproad  mon!  and  more  widely  over  the  mild,  pnidiic- 
tivc,  and  encliaiitinir  interior.  Thvy  ascended  rivers  to  the 
valleys  of  its  mountain  ran^a-s,  where  tlu;  red  soil  JM.re  wheat 
luxuriantly.  Anion^r  the  halt'-oi)ened  forests  of  ( )ranf,'e  county, 
in  a  homo  of  plenty,  there  sported  on  the  lawn  the  chdd  Madi- 
son, round  whom  chistered  the  ho])es  of  American  union. 
On  tlie  lii^hlands  of  Allxniarle,  Thomas  di^d'erson,  son  of  u* 
surveyor,  dwelt  on  the  skirt  of  forest  life,  with  no  intercepting^ 
ran<?e  of  hills  hetween  his  dwellin^r-phiei.  and  the  far  distan't 
ocean.  IJeyond  the  Blue  Kid^n-,  men  canu-  from  the  ^dades  of 
Pennsylvania;  of  most  various  nations,  Irish,  Scottish,  and 
(lerman;  ever  in  strife  with  the  royal  otHcers;  occnpv'ng 
lauds  without  allotment,  or  on  mere  warrants  of  survey,  with- 
out patents  or  payment  of  (piit-rents.  Everywhere!  in  Vir- 
ffinia  the  sentiment  of  individuality  was  the  i)areut  of  its 
rt.'i)ul>iicanism. 

^N'orth  of  the  Potomac,  at  the  centre  of  America,  were  the 
proprietary  governments  of  Maryland  and  of  Pennsylvania, 
with  Delaware.  There  the  king  had  no  officers  but  in  the 
customs  and  the  adnuralty  c-.urts ;  his  name  was  scarcely  known 
in  the  acts  of  government. 

During  the  last  war,  IMaryland  enjoyed  unbroken  quiet, 
furnishing  no  le\'ies  of  men  for  the  army,  and  very  small  con- 
tributions of  money.  Its  legislature  hardly  looked  beyond  its 
o\ni  internal  affairs,  and  its  growth  in  numl)ers  proved  its 
prosperity.  _  The  youthful  Frederic,  Lord  I'>altimore,  sixth  of 
that  title,  dissolute  and  riotous,  fond  of  wine  to  madness  and 
of  women  to  folly,  as  a  prince  zealous  for  in-erogative,  though 
noi,digcnt  of  business,  was  the  sole  landlord  of  the  province. 
On  acts  of  legislation,  to  him  belonged  a  triple  veto,  by  his 
council,  by  bis  deputy,  and  by  himself.  He  established  courts 
and  appointed  all  their  officers  ;  punished  convicted  offenders, 
or  pardoned  them ;  appointed  at  pleasure  councillors,  all  offi- 
cers of  the  colony,  and  all  the  considerable  county  officers ;  and 
possessed  exclusively  the  unai)propriated  domain.  Reserving 
ciioiee  lands  for  his  owni  manors,  he  had  the  whole  people  foi- 
his  tenants  on  (piit-rcuts,  which,  in  1754,  exceeded  twenty-tive 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  were  rapidly  increasing.  On  every 
"■'-'w  grant  from  the  wild  domain  he  received  caution  money  ; 


t 


tor 


i-i  hit 


i!   :  !!'> 


1 

r 

1  I 


:k< 


396    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.  ;  cii.  vi. 

bis  were  all  esclieats,  wardships,  and  fruits  of  the  feudal  ten- 
ures. Fines  of  alienation,  though  abolished  in  England,  were 
paid  for  his  benefit  on  every  transfer,  and  fines  upon  devises 
we;-e  still  exacted.  He  enjoyed  a  perpetual  port  duty  of  four- 
teen-[)enee  a  ton,  on  vessels  not  owned  in  the  province,  yield- 
ing not  far  from  five  thousand  dollars  a  year  ;  and  he  exacted 
a  tribute  for  licenses  to  hawkers  and  pedlers,  and  to  ordinaries. 

These  were  the  private  income  of  Lord  Baltimore.  For 
the  public  service  he  needed  no  annual  grants.  By  an  act  of 
1704:,  which  was  held  to  be  permanent,  an  ex-^iort  tax  of  a  shil- 
ling on  every  hogshead  of  tobacco  gave  an  annually  increasing 
income  of  already  not  much  less  than  seven  thousand  dollars 
more  than  enough  for  the  salary  of  his  lieutenant-governor  • 
while  other  oflicers  were  paid  by  fees  and  perquisites.  Tims 
the  assembly  scarcely  had  occasion  to  impose  taxes,  except  for 
the  wages  of  its  own  members. 

Besides  the  untrammelled  power  of  appointing  colonial  offi- 
cers. Lord  Baltimore,  as  prince  palatine,  could  raise  his  liege- 
men to  defend  his  province.  His  was  also  the  power  to  pass 
ordinances  for  the  preservation  of  order,  to  erect  towns  and 
cities,  to  grant  titles  of  honor,  and  his  the  advowson  of  every 
benefice.  The  colonial  act  of  1702  had  divided  Maryland  into 
parishes,  and  estal)lished  the  Anglican  church  by  an  annual  tax 
of  forty  pounds  of  tol)acco  on  every  poll.  The  parishes  were 
about  forty  in  numl)er,  increasing  in  value,  some  of  them  prom- 
ising a  thousand  pounds  sterling  a  year.  Thus  the  lewd  Lord 
Baltimore  had  more  church  patronage  than  aiiy  landholder  in 
England  ;  and,  as  there  was  no  bishop  in  America,  rufiians,  fugi- 
tives from  justice,  men  stained  by  intemperance  and  lust  (I 
write  with  caution,  the  distinct  allegations  being  before  me), 
nestled  themselves,  tlirough  his  corrupt  and  easy  nature,  in  the 
parishes  of  Maryland. 

The  king  had  reserved  no  right  of  revising  the  laws  of  Ma- 
ryland ;  nor  could  he  invalidate  them,  except  as  they  should 
be  found  repugnant  to  those  of  England.  The  royal  power 
was  by  charter  restrained  "from  imposing,  or  raising  to  be 
imposed,  any  customs  or  other  taxations,  quotas,  or  contribu- 
tions whatsoever,  within  the  province,  or  upon  any  merchan- 
dise, while  being  laden  or  unladen  in  its  ports."    Of  its  people, 


1754. 


THE  OLD  THIRTEEN  COLONIES. 


397 


and  these  suffered 


about  one  twelftli  were  Roman  Catliolics ; 
the  burden  of  double  taxation. 

In  Pennsylvania,  with  the  counties  on  Delaware,  the  people 
whose  numbers  appeared  to  double  in  sixteen  years,  were 
already  the  masters,  and  to  dispute  their  authority  '.vas  but  to 
introduce  an  apparent  anarchy.  Of  the  noble  territory,  the 
jomt  proprietors  were  Thomas  and  Richard  Penn,  the  former 
holding  three  quarters  of  the  whole.  Inheritance  might  sub- 
divide It  indeliuitely.  The  political  power  that  had  been  be- 
queathed to  them  brought  little  personal  dignity  or  benefit. 

The  lieutenant-governor  had  a  negative  on  legislation  •  but 
he  depended  on  the  assembly  for  his  annual  support,  and  had 
otren  to  choose  between  comphanee  and  poverty.     To  the 
council,  whom  the  proprietaries  appointed,  and  to  the  proprie- 
taries themselves,  the  right  to  revise  legislative  acts  was  de- 
nied; and  long  usage  conlirmed  the  denial.     The  le-i.slaturc 
had  but  one  branch,  and  of  that  branch  Benjamin  Franklin 
was  the  soul.     It  had  an  existence  of  its  own  ;  could  meet  on 
Its  o\vn  adj-ournments,  and  no  power  could  prorogue  or  dissolve 
It;  but  a  swift  responsibiHty  brought  its  members  annually 
betore  their  constituents.     The  assembly  would  not  allow  the 
proprietaries  in  England  to  name  judges ;  they  were  to  be 
named  by  the  lieutenant-governor  on  the  spot,  and,  like  him, 
depended  for  their  salaries  on  the  yearly  vote  of  the  assembly. 
All  slieriffs  and  coroners  were  chosen  by  the  people.     ]\Ioneys 
were  raised  by  an  excise,  and  were  kept  and  were  disbursed  i)y 
provincial  commissioners.    The  land-office  was  under  pro])rietary 
coutrol;  and,  to  balance  its  political  influence,  the  assembly 
ivept  the  loan-office  of  paper  money  under  their  own  super- 
vision. ^ 

The  laws  established  for  Pennsylvania  complete  enfran- 
chisement in  the  domain  of  thought.  Its  able  press  develoi>ed 
the  principles  of  cidl  rights;  its  chief  city  cherished  science ; 
and,  by  private  munificence,  a  ship,  at  the  instance  of  Franklin' 
luul  attempted  to  discover  the  north-western  passage.  A  library,' 
too,  was  endowed,  and  an  academy  chartered.  Xo  oaths  or 
tests  barred  the  avenue  to  public  posts.  The  church  of  Eng- 
^nd,  unaided  by  law,  competed  with  all  forms  of  dissent.  The 
msbyterians,  who  were  Avilling  to  fight  for  their  lil)erties. 


:|%i 


Ull. 


'■  i  ( 


i\ 


liir    M 


iifilifff 


398    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,  kp.  i.  ;    cu.  vi. 

began  to  Ix. lance  tlie  men  who  were  prepared  to  suffer  for 
tlieiu.  Yet  the  Quakers,  Immblest  among  plebeian  sects,  and 
boldest  of  them  all — disjoined  from  the  middle  age  without 
even  a  shred  or  a  mark  of  its  bonds ;  abolishing  not  the  aris- 
tocracy of  the  sword  only,  but  all  war ;  not  ])relacy  and  priest- 
craft only,  but  outward  symbols  and  ordinances,  external  sacra- 
ments and  forms — j^^^e  spiritualists,  and  apostles  of  the  power 
and  the  freedom  of  mind,  still  swayed  legislation  and  pub- 
lic opinion.  Ever  restless  under  authority,  they  were  jealous 
of  the  new  generation  of  i)roprietaries  who  had  fallen  off  from 
their  society,  regulated  the  government  with  a  view  to  their 
own  personal  profit,  and  shunned  taxation  of  their  colonial 
estates. 

New  Jersey,  now  a  royal  government,  enjoyed,  with  the 
aged  Belcher,  comparative  tranquillity.  He  parried  for  them 
the  oppresf-ivc  disposition  of  the  board  of  trade,  and  the  ra- 
pacity of  the  great  claimants  of  lands  who  licld  seats  in  the 
council.  "  I  have  to  steer,"  he  would  say,  "  between  Scylla 
and  Charybdis ;  to  please  the  king's  ministers  at  home,  and  a 
touchy  people  here ;  to  luff  for  one,  and  bear  away  for  another." 
Sheltered  by  its  position,  New  Jersey  refused  to  share  the  ex- 
pense of  Indian  alliances,  often  left  its  own  annual  expenses 
unprovided  for,  and  its  obstinate  enthusiasts  awaited  the  com- 
pletion of  the  prophecies  that  "  nation  shall  not  lift  u])  sword 
against  nation." 

There,  too,  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  John  Woohnan, 
a  tailor  by  trade,  "  stood  up  like  a  trumpet,  through  which  the 
Lord  speaks  to  his  people,"  to  make  the  negro  masters  sensible 
of  tlie  evil  of  holding  the  people  of  Africa  in  slaveiy  ;  and,  by 
his  testimony  at  the  meetings  of  Friends,  reconnnended  that 
oppressed  part  of  the  creation  to  the  notice  of  each  individual 
and  of  the  society. 

"  Thougli  we  make  slaves  of  the  negroes,  and  the  Turks 
make  slaves  of  tlie  Christians,"  so  he  persistently  taught, 
"  liberty  is  the  natural  right  of  all  men  equally."  "  The  slaves 
look  to  me  like  a  burdensome  stone  to  such  who  burden  them- 
selves with  them.  The  burden  will  grow  heavier  and  heavier 
till  times  change  in  a  way  disagreeable  to  us."  "  It  may  bo 
just,"  observed  one  of  his  hearers,  '•  for  the  Almighty  so  to 


1754.  THE  OLD   TIIIETEEN  COLONIES.  399 

order  it."  It  was  a  matter  fixed  in  his  mind,  that  this  trade 
ot  importing  slaves,  and  way  of  life  in  keepin:.^  them,  were 
dark  gloominess  hanging  over  the  land.  "  Tlie  conseqnences 
would  be  grievous  to  posterity."  Therefore  he  went  about 
persuading  men  that  "the  practice  of  continuing  slavery  was 
not  right;"  and  he  endeavored  "to  raise  an  idea  of  a  general 
brotherhood."  JVEasters  of  negroes  on  both  banks  of  the  Dela- 
ware began  the  work  of  setting  them  free,  "because  they  had 
no  contract  for  their  labor,  and  liberty  was  their  ri<rht  "  A 
general  epistle  from  the  yea.-ly  meeting  of  rriends,1n  1754 
declared  it  to  be  their  "concern"  to  bear  testimony  against 
tlie  mnpiitous  practice  of  slave-deaHng,  and  to  warn  their 
members  against  making  any  purchase  of  slaves. 

New  York  was  at  this  time  the  central  point  of  political 
interest.     Its  position  invited  it  to  foster  American  union 
Having  the  most  convenient  harbor  on  the  Atlantic,  with  bays 
expanding  on  either  hand,  and  a  navigable  river  penetratim. 
the  interior,  it  held  the  keys  of  Canada  and  the  lakes.     The 
orts  at  Crown  Point  and  Niagara  were  encroachments  upon  its 
hull  s.    Its  unsurveyed  inland  frontier,  sweeping  round  on  the 
north,  disputed  with  New  Hampshire  tlie  land  between  Lake 
Cliamplam  and  the  Connecticut,  and  extended  into  unmeasured 
distances  m  the  west.    Within  its  bosom,  at  Onondaga,  burned 
the  council-hre  of  the  Six  Nations,  whose  irregular  bands  had 
seated  themselves  near  .Alontreal,  on  tlie  northern  shore  of 
Ontario,  and  on  the  Ohio ;  whose  hunters  roamed  over  the 
iNorth-west  and  the  AYest.    Here  were  concentrated  by  far  the 
m<.,st  important  Indian  relations,  round  which  the  idea  of  a 
general  union  was  shaping  itself  into  a  reality.     It  was  to  still 
he  hereditary  warfare  of  the  Six  Nations  with  the  southern 
Indians  that  South  Carolina  and  Massachusetts  first  met  at 
Albany;  it  was  to  confirm  friendship  witli  them  and  tl^ir 
alhes  that  New  England  and  all  the  central  states  but  New 
Jersey  had  assembled  in  congress. 

England  never  possessed  the  affection  of  the  country  which 
It  had  acquired  by  con.piest.  British  officials  sent  home  com- 
plamts  of  "  the  Dutch  republicans  "  as  disloyal.  The  descend- 
ants of  the  Huguenot  refugees  were  taunted  with  their  orio-in, 
and  invited  to  accept  English  liberties  as  a  boon.     Nowhere 


"i\    i 


I.     !i 


:    lii  III  ^ 


)  'I 


^    1 


iOO    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  vr. 

was  the  collision  between  tlie  royal  governor  and  the  colonial 
assembly  so  violent  or  so  inveterate ;  nowhere  had  the  legisla- 
ture, by  its  method  of  granting  money,  so  nearly  exhausted 
and  appropriated  to  itself  all  executive  authority;  nowhere 
had  the  relations  of  the  province  to  Great  Britain  been  more 
sharply  controverted.  The  board  of  trade  esteemed  the  pro- 
vincial legislature  to  rest  for  its  existence  on  acts  of  the  royal 
prerogative,  while  the  people  looked  iipon  their  representa- 
tives as  existing  by  an  inherent  right,  and  co-ordinate  ^nth 
the  British  house  of  commons. 

The  laws  of  trade  excited  still  more  resistance.  Why 
should  a  people,  of  M'hom  one  half  were  of  f<jreign  ancestry, 
be  cut  off  from  all  the  world  but  England  ?  Why  must  the 
children  of  Holland  be  debarred  from  the  ports  of  the  Nether- 
lands^ Why  must  their  ships  seek  the  i^roduce  of  Europe, 
and,  by  a  later  law,  the  produce  of  Asia,  in  English  harbors 
alone  ?  Why  were  negro  slaves  the  only  considerable  object 
of  foreign  commerce  which  England  did  not  compel  to  be 
first  landed  on  its  shores  ?  The  British  restrictive  system  was 
transgressed  by  all  America,  but  most  of  all  by  New  York, 
the  child  of  the  Netherlands.  Especially  the  British  ministry 
had  been  invited,  in  1752,  to  observe  that,  while  the  consump- 
tion of  tea  was  annually  mcreasing  in  America,  the  export 
from  England  was  decreasing ;  and,  meantime,  the  little  island 
of  St.  Eustatius,  a  heap  of  rocks  but  two  leagues  in  length  by 
one  in  breadth,  ^dthout  a  rivulet  or  a  spring,  gathered  in  its 
storehouses  the  products  of  Holland,  of  the  Orient,  of  tlie 
world  ;  and  its  harbor  was  more  and  more  filled  with  fieets  of 
colonial  trading-vessels,  which,  if  need  were,  completed  their 
cargoes  by  entering  the  French  islands  with  Dutch  papers. 
Under  the  British  statutes,  which  made  the  connnorcial  rela- 
tions of  America  to  England  not  a  union,  but  a  bondage, 
America  bought  of  England  hardly  more  than  she  would  have 
done  on  the  system  of  freedom ;  and  this  small  advantage  was 
dearly  purchased  by  the  ever-increasing  cost  of  cruisers,  cus- 
tom-house officers,  and  vice-admiralty  courts,  and  the  discon- 
tent of  the  merchants. 

The  large  landholders  were  jealous  of  British  authority, 
which  threatened  to  bound  their  pretensions,  or  question  their 


1754 


TIIE  OLD  THIRTEEN  COLONIES. 


401 


titles,  or,  through  parliament,  to  burden  them  mth  a  land-tax 
The  lawyers  of  the  colony,  chiefly  Presbyterians,  and  educated 
in  Connecticut,  joined  heartily  with  the  merchants  and  the 
great  proprietors  to  resist  every  encroachment  from  England 
In  no  province  was  the  near  approach  of  independence  dis^ 
ceraed  so  clearly,  or  so  openly  predicted. 

New  York  had  been  settled  under  large  patents  of  lands  to 
nidividuals ;  New  England,  under  grants  to  towns ;  and  the 
institution  of  towns  was  its  glory  and  its  strength.     The  in- 
liahited  part  of  Massachusetts  Avas  recognised  as  divided  into 
little  territories,  each  of  which,  for  its  internal  purposes,  con- 
stituted aji  integral  government,  free  from  supervision ;  having 
power  to  choose  annually  its  own  officers  ;  to  hold  meetino<s  of 
all  freemen  at  its  pleasure;  to  discuss  in  those  meetings^any 
subject  of  public  interest;  to  see  that  every  able-bodied  man 
within  Its  precincts  was  enrolled  in  the  militia  and  provided 
with  anns,  ready  for  immediate  use ;  to  elect  and  to  instruct  its 
representatives ;  to  raise  and  appropriate  money  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  ministry,  of  schools,  of  highways,  of  the  poor,  and 
for  defraying  other  necessary  expenses  within  the  town.     It 
was  incessantly  deplored,  by  royalists  of  later  days,  that  the  law 
which  confirmed  tliese  liberties  had  received  the  unreflecting 
sanction  of  William  III.,  and  the  most  extensive  interpretation 
in  practice.     Boston,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  ventured  in 
touni-meeting  to  appoint  its  own  agent  to  present  a  remon- 
.strance  to  th    board  of  trade.     New  Hampshire,  Connecticut, 
Khodo  Island,  and  Maine  which  was  a  part  of  Massachusetts, 
Iiad  similar  regulations;  so   that  all   New   England  was  an 
aggregate  of  organized  democracies.     But  the  complete  de- 
velopment of  the  institution  was  to  be  found  in  Connecticut 
and  the  Massachusetts  bay.     There  each  to^vaiship  was  sub- 
stantially a   territorial    parisli ;    the   town  Avas   the   religious 
congregation;   the   independent   church   was    established   by 
law;  the  minister  was   elected  by  the   people,  who  annually 
made  grants    for   his   support.      There   the    system   of  free 
^cliools  was   carried    to    such    perfection  that  an  adult  born 
m  New  England  and  unable  to   write   and   read   could  not 
I'e  found.      He  that  will   understand  the  political  character 
t't  New  England  in  the  eighteenth  century  must  study  the 

VOL.  II.— 26 


Til 

■"' 

'iffl 

'1; 

',','1'  fl 

i    . 

1'  ">  i  H 

I 

i=|U 

iif  1 


tli;' 


i,  m: 


^ 

; 

'  - 
■ 

'  J'.^ 

'^^J 

CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AXD   CANADA,    kim.;  en.  vi. 

constitution  of  its  towns,  its  congregations,  its  schools,  and  its 
militia. 

Yet  in  these  democracies  the  hope  of  independence,  as  a 
near  event,  had  not  dawned ;  the  inhabitants  still  clung  with 
persevering  affection  to  the  land  of  their  ancestry,  and  tlieir 
language.  They  were  of  homogeneous  origin,  nearly  all  trac- 
"Uj^  f-heir  descent  to  English  emigrants  of  the  reigns  of  Cliarles 
I  !U)  I  Charles  11.  They  were  frugal  and  industrious.  Along 
the  oca-side,  wherever  there  was  a  good  harbor,  iishennen,  fa- 
miliar with  the  ocean,  gathered  in  hamlets ;  and  each  returning 
season  saw  them,  with  an  ever-increasing  number  of  mariners 
and  vessels,  taking  the  cod  and  mackerel,  and  sometimes  pur- 
suing the  Avhale  into  tlie  northern  seas.  At  Boston  a  society 
was  formed  for  promoting  domestic  manufactures:  on  one  of 
its  anniversaries,  three  hundred  young  women  appeared  on  the 
common,  clad  in  homespun,  seated  in  a  triple  row,  each  with  a 
spinning-wheel,  and  each  busily  transferring  the  tlax  from  the 
distaff  to  the  spool.  The  t0A\ai  built  "  a  manufacturing  house," 
and  there  were  bounties  to  encourage  the  workers  in  linen. 
Ilow  the  board  of  trade  were  alarmed  at  the  news !  How  they 
censured  Shirley  for  not  having  frowned  on  the  bushiess! 
How  committees  of  the  house  of  conunons  examined  witnesses, 
and  made  proposals  for  prohibitory  laws,  till  the  Boston  manu- 
facturing house,  designed  to  foster  home  industry,  fell  into 
decay !  Of  slavery  there  was  not  enough  to  affect  the  char- 
acter of  the  people,  except  in  the  south-east  of  Rhode  Island, 
where  Newport  was  conspicuous  for  engaging  in  the  slave- 
trade  ;  and  where,  in  two  or  three  towns,  negroes  composed 
even  a  third  of  the  inhabitants. 

In  the  settlements  which  grew  up  in  the  interior,  on  the 
margin  of  the  greenwood,  the  plain  meeting-house  of  the  con- 
gregation for  public  worship  was  everywhere  the  central  point ; 
near  it  stood  the  public  school.  The  snug  farm-houses,  owned 
as  freeholds,  without  quit-rents,  were  dotted  along  the  way. 
In  every  hand  was  the  Bible ;  every  home  was  a  house  of 
prayer ;  all  had  been  taught,  many  had  comprehended,  a  me- 
thodical theory  of  the  divine  purpose  in  creation,  and  of  the 
destiny  of  man. 

Child  of  the  reformation,  closely  connected  with  the  past 


1754. 


THE  OLD  THIRTEEN  COLONIES. 


403 

centuries  and  with  the  greatest  intellectual  struggles  of  man- 
kiiid,  Now  England  had  been  planted  by  enthusiasts  who  feared 
no  sovereign  but  God.  In  the  universal  degeneracy  and  ruin 
of  the  Eouiau  world,  Augustine,  the  African  bishop,  mth  a 
heart  of  fire,  confident  that,  though  Rome  tottered,  the  hope 
ot  man  would  endure,  rescued  from  the  wreck  of  the  Old 
WcAd  the  truths  that  would  renew  humanity,  and  sheltered 
tiiem  in  the  cloister. 

After  the  sorrows  of  a  thousand  years,  rose  up  an  Augus- 
tine monk,  he  too  having  a  heart  of  tlame.     At  his  biddhur 
truth  leaped  over  the  cloister  walls,  and  challenged  every  m.-m 
to  make  her  his  guest ;  aroused  every  intelligence  to  acts 
<.f  private  judgment;  changed  a  dependent,  recipient  people 
into  a  reflectmg,  inquiring  people;  lifted  each  human  being 
out  of  the  castes  of  the  middle  age,  to  endow  him  with  indi- 
nduahty ;  and  summoned  man  to  stand  forth  as  man      The 
world  heaved  with  the  fervent  conflict  of  opinion.     The  peo- 
ple and  their  guides  recognised  the  dignity  of  labor;  the  op- 
pressed peasantry  took  up  arms  for  liberty;  men  reverenced 
and  exercised  the  freedom  of  the  soul.     The  breath  of  the 
new  spirit  revived  Poland,  animated  Germany,  swayed  the 
North ;  and  the  inquisition  of  Spain  could  not  silence  its  whis- 
pers among  the  mountains  of  the  ])eninsula.      It  invaded 
I^rance;  and,  though  bonfires  of  heretics,  by  way  of  warning, 
were  lighted  at  the  gates  of  Paris,  it  infused  itself  into  the 
I'rench  mmd,  and  led  to  unwonted  free  discussions.     Exile 
could  not  quench  it.     On  the  banks  of  the  Lake  of  Geneva, 
Calvin  stood  forth  the  boldest  refonner  of  his  day;  not  per- 
sonally engaging  in  political  intrigues,  yet,  by  promulgating 
groat  ideas,  forming  the  seed-plot  of  revolution;  acknowledg- 
ing no  sacrament  of  ordination  but  the  choice  of  the  laity  no 
patent  of  nobiUty  but  that  of  the  elect  of  God,  with  its  seals 
01  eternity. 

Luther's  was  still  v  catholic  religion :  it  sought  to  instruct 
all,  to  confirm  all,  to  sanctify  all ;  and  so,  under  the  shelter  of 
pnnces,  it  gave  established  forms  to  Protestant  Germany,  and 
Sweden,  and  Denmark,  and  England.  But  Calvin  taught  an 
exclusive  doctrine,  which,  though  it  addressed  itself  to  all, 
rested  only  on  the  chosen.    Lutherauism  was,  therefore,  not  a 


m 


ilii 


i  'i 


1  ■": 


llMIf 


! 


404    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i,  ;  311.  vi. 

political   party;    it  included   prince  and  noble  and  peasant. 
Calvinism  was  revolutionary ;  wherever  it  came,  it  created  di- 
vision ;  its  symbol,  as  set  upon  the  "  Institutes  "  of  its  ♦;eacher, 
wad  a  flaming  sword.     By  the  side  of  the  eternal  mountains 
and  perennial  snows  and  arrowy  rivers  of  Switzerland  it  was 
faithful  to  a  reliii;ion  without  a  prelate,  a  government  without 
a  king.     Fortilied  by  its  faith  in  lixed  decrees,  it  kept  posses- 
sion of  its  homes  among  the  Alps.     It  grew  powerful  in 
France,  and,  between  the  feudal  nobility  and  the  crown,  invigo- 
rated the  long  contest,  wliich  did  not  end  till  the  subjection 
of  tlie  nobility,  through  the  central  despotism,  prepared  the 
ruin  of  that  despotism,  by  promoting  the  e(piality  of  the  com- 
mons.    It  entered  Holland,  inspiring   an   industrious  nation 
with  heroic  enthusiasm,  enfranchising  and  imiting  provinces, 
and  making  burghers,  and  weavers,  and  artisans,  victors  over 
Spanish  chivalry,  the  power  of  the  inrpiisition,  and  the  pre- 
tended r-    jesty  of  kings.     It  penetrated  Scotland,  and,  while 
its  Avhirlwind  bore  persuasion  among  glens  and  mountains,  it 
shrunk  from  no  danger,  ar'^  hesitated  at  no  ambition ;  it  nerved 
its  rugged  but  hearty  envoy  to  resist  the  flatteries  of  Queen 
Mary;  it  assumed  the  education  of  her  only  son ;  it  divided 
the  nobility  ;  it  penetrated  the  masses,  overturned  the  ancient 
ecclesiastical  establishment,  planted  the  free  parochial  school, 
and  gave  a  living  energy  to  the  principle  of  liberty  in  a  jieo- 
ple.     It  infused  itself  into  England,  and  placed  its  plebeian 
sympathies  in  daring  resistance  to  the  courtly  hierarchy ;  dis- 
senting from  dissent,  longing  to  introduce  the  reign  of  right- 
eousness, it  invited  every  man  to  read  the  Bible,  and  made 
itself  dear  to  the  common  mind,  by  teaching,  as  a  divane  reve- 
lation, the  unity  of  the  race  and  the  natural  etpiality  of  man; 
it  claimed  for  itself  freedom  of  utterance,  and  through  the  pul- 
pit, in  elocpience  imbued  witli  the  authoritative  words  of  proph- 
ets and  apostles,  spoke  to  the  whole  congregation ;  it  sought 
new  truth,  denying  the  sanctity  of  the  continuity  of  tradition; 
it  stood  up  against  the  middle  age  and  its  forms  in  church  and 
state,  hating  them  Avith  a  tierce  and  unrpienchable  hatred. 

Imprisoned,  maimed,  oppressed  at  home,  its  independent 
converts  in  Great  Britain  looked  lieyond  the  Atlontic  for  a 
better  world.     Their  energetic  passion  was  nurtured  by  trust 


EP.  I, ;    311.  VI. 


1754. 


THE  OLD  THIRTEEN  COLONIES. 


406 


in  the  divine  protection,  their  power  of  will  was  safely  in- 
trenched in  their  own  vigorous  crcMl;  and  under  the  banner 
of  the  gospel,  with  the  fervid  and  enduring  love  of  the  myri- 
ads who  in  Europe  adopted  the  stern  simplicity  of  the  disci- 
plme  of  Calvin,  they  sailed  for  the  wilderness,  far  away  from 
"  popery  and  prelacy,"  from  the  traditions  of  the  church,  from 
hereditary  power,  from  the  sovereignty  of  an  earthly  king— 
from  all  dominion  but  the  Bible,  and  "  what  arose  from  natu- 
ral reason  and  the  principles  of  equity." 

_  The  ideas  which  had  borne  the  New  England  emigrants  to 
this  transatlantic  world  were  polemic  and  republican  in  their 
origin  and  their  tendency.  Against  the  authority  of  the  church 
of  the  middle  ages  Calvin  arrayed  the  authority  of  the  Bible; 
the  time  was  come  to  coimect  religion  and  philosophy,  and 
sliow  the  harmf)ny  between  faith  and  reason.  Against  the 
feudal  aristocracy,  the  plebeian  reformer  summoned  the  spot- 
less nobihty  of  the  elect,  foreordained  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world  ;  but  New  England,  Avhich  had  no  hereditary  caste 
to  beat  down,  ceased  to  make  predestination  its  ruling  idea,  and, 
maturing  a  character  of  its  own,  "Saw  love  attractive  ever^ 
system  bind."  The  transition  had  taken  place  from  the  haughti- 
ness of  self-assertion  against  the  pride  of  feudalism,  to  the 
adoption  of  love  as  the  benign  sjurit  which  was  to  animate  the 
new  teachings  in  politics  and  religion. 

From  God  were  derived  its  theories  of  ontology,  of  ethics, 
of  science,  of  happiness,  of  human  perfectibility,  and  of  hu- 
man liberty. 

God  himself,  ^vTote  Jonathan  Edwards,  is,  "  in  effect,  uni- 
versal Being."  Nature  in  its  amplitude  is  Imt  "an  emanation 
of  his  own  infimte  fulness  ;"  a  flowing  forth  and  expression  of 
himself  in  objects  of  his  benevolence.  In  everything  there  is 
a  calm,  sweet  cast  of  divine  glory.  He  comprehends  "all  en- 
tity and  all  excellence  in  his  own  essence."  Creation  pro- 
ceeded from  a  disposition  in  the  fulness  of  Divinity  to  flow 
out  and  diffuse  its  existence.  The  infinite  Being  is  Being  in 
general.  His  existence,  as  it  is  infinite,  comprehends  universal 
existence.  There  are  and  there  can  be  no  beings  distinct  and 
mdependent.     God  is  -'  All  and  alone." 

The  glory  of  God  is  the  ultimate  end  of  moral  goodness, 


(I  : 


I      d 


ii  i 


\dmk 


4:00    CONQUEST   OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  ti. 

wliich  in  the  crcatnro  is  love  to  the  Creator.  Virtue  consists 
in  ])ublic  iiflection  or  general  benevolence.  J^iit  as  in  tlie  New 
England  mind  God  inchided  universal  being,  so  to  love  God 
included  love  to  all  that  exists ;  and  was,  therefore,  in  opposi- 
tion to  selfishness,  the  sura  of  all  morality,  the  universal  benevo- 
lence com])rehending  all  righteousness. 

God  is  tlie  fountain  of  light  and  knowledge,  so  that  truth 
in  man  is  but  a  conformity  to  God  ;  knowledge  in  man, 
but  "  the  image  of  God's  own  knowledge  of  himself."  Nor 
is  there  a  motive  to  repress  speculative  inquiry.  "  There  is 
no  need,"  said  Edwards,  "that  the  strict  philosophic  tnith 
should  be  at  all  concealed  from  men."  "  The  more  clearly 
and  fully  the  true  system  of  the  universe  is  known,  tlie  bet- 
ter." Nor  can  any  outward  authority  nde  the  mind ;  the  rev- 
elations of  God,  being  emanations  from  the  infinite  fountain 
of  knowledge,  have  certainty  and  reality ;  they  accord  with 
reason  and  common  sense  ;  and  give  direct,  intuitive,  and  all- 
conquering  evidence  of  their  divinity. 

God  is  the  source  of  happiness.  His  angels  minister  to 
his  servants ;  the  vast  nuiltitudes  of  his  enemies  are  as  great 
heaps  of  light  chaff  before  the  whirlwind.  Against  his  ene- 
mies the  bow  of  God's  wrath  is  bent,  and  the  arrow  made 
ready  on  the  string ;  and  justice  bends  the  aiTow  at  their  heart 
and  strains  the  bow.  God  includes  all  being  and  all  lioliuess. 
Emnity  with  hi  n  is  enmity  with  all  tnie  life  and  power ;  au 
infinite  evil,  fraught  vnili  infinite  and  endless  woe.  To  exist 
in  union  with  him  is  the  highest  well-being,  that  shall  increase 
in  glory  and  joy  throughout  eternity. 

God  is  his  own  chief  end  in  creation.  But,  as  he  includes 
all  being,  his  glory  includes  the  glory  and  the  perfecting  of 
the  universe.  Tlie  whole  human  race,  throughout  its  entire 
career  of  existence,  hath  oneness  and  identity,  and  "constitutes 
one  complex  person,"  "  one  moral  whole."  The  glory  of  God 
includes  the  redemption  and  glory  of  humanity.  From  the 
moment  of  creation  to  the  final  judgment,  it  is  all  one  work. 
Every  event  which  has  swayed  "  the  state  of  the  world  of  man- 
kind," "all  its  revolutions,"  proceed,  as  it  was  determined, 
toward  "  the  glorious  time  that  shall  be  in  the  latter  days," 
when  the  new  shall  be  more  excellent  than  the  old. 


EP.  I. ;   on,  TI. 


1754. 


THE  OLD  TIHUTEEN  COLONIES. 


407 


God  is  the  absolute  Rovereign,  doing  according  to  liis  mhU 
in  tho  armies  of  heaven,  and  among  the  inliahitants  on  earth. 
Scorning  the  thought  of  free  agency  as  breaking  the  um'verso 
of  action  into  countles.s  fragments,  tho  greatest  nundier  in  New 
England  held  that  every  volition,  even  of  tho  humblest  of  tho 
people,  is  obedient  to  the  fixed  decrees  of  I'rovidence,  and  par- 
ticipates in  eternity. 

Yet,  while  tho  common  mind  of  Now  England  was  in- 
spired by  the  great  thought  of  the  solo  sovereignty  of  (Jod,  it 
(lid  not  los»;  personality  and  human  freedom  in  pantheistic 
fatalism.  Like  Augiistino,  who  made  war  both  on  Manicheans 
and  Pelagians ;  like  tho  Stoics,  whose  morals  it  most  nearly 
adopted — it  asserted  by  just  dialectics,  or,  as  some  would  say, 
by  a  sublime  inconsistency,  the  power  of  tho  individual  will. 
In  every  action  it  beheld  tho  union  of  the  motive  and  volition. 
Tho  action,  it  saw,  was  according  to  tho  strongest  motive  ;  and 
it  knew  that  what  proves  the  s  rongest  motive  depends  on  tho 
character  of  the  will.  The  Calvinist  of  Now  England,  who 
longed  to  be  "  morally  good  and  excellent,"  had,  therefore,  no 
other  object  of  moral  elfort  than  to  make  "the  will  truly 
lovely  and  right." 

Action,  therefore,  as  flowing  from  an  energetic,  right,  and 
lovely  will,  was  the  ideal  of  New  England.  It  rejected  the  as- 
ceticism of  one-sided  spiritualists,  and  fostered  tb"  whole  man, 
seeking  to  perfect  his  intelligence  and  improve  his  outward 
condition.  It  saw  in  every  one  the  divine  and  the  Innnan  na- 
ture. It  subjected  but  did  not  extii-pate  the  inferior  i)rinciple8. 
It  placed  no  merit  in  vows  of  poverty  or  celibacy,  and  6i)umed 
the  thought  of  non-resistance.  In  a  good  cause  its  people  were 
ready  to  take  up  arms  and  fight,  cheered  by  the  conviction  that 
(xud  was  working  in  them  both  to  will  and  to  do. 


i  ■  'iif 


i;'  ;■- 


('■"t; 


f:r 


i 


408    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.;  cii.  vn. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

the  mini.stkrs  aue  advirtkd  to  tax  america  tjy  act  of  par- 
llvmi;nt.    Newcastle's  admlnibtkation. 

1754-1755. 

Seen  was  America,  where  the  j)eople  were  rapidly  becom- 
ing sovereign.  It  was  tlie  inomeiit  when  the  aristocracy  of 
England,  availing  itself  of  the  fornudas  of  the  revolntiun  of 
1088,  controlled  the  election  of  the  honse  of  conunons  und 
held  possession  of  the  government.  To  gain  a  seat  in  parlia- 
ment, the  great  commoner  himself  was  forced  to  ask  it  of 
Newcastle, 

On  the  sixth  of  March  1754,  a  fever  terminated  the  life 
of  Ilenry  Pelham.  He  was  a  statesman  of  cantion  and  mod- 
eration, fidelity  and  integrity,  nnassuming  and  conciliatory; 
but  with  nothing  heroic  in  his  nature.  lie  had  enforced  fru- 
gality, reduced  the  interest  on  the  national  debt,  and  con- 
solidated the  public  funds ;  had  resisted  every  temptation  to 
unnecessary  war,  or  to  the  indulgence  of  extreme  i)arty  spirit ; 
and,  holding  high  ofiice  for  about  thirty  years,  had  lived  with- 
out ostentation  and  died  jioor.  He  alone  was  able  to  control 
the  wayAvardness  of  his  elder  brother,  and  was  the  balance- 
wheel  of  the  administration.  His  praise  may  be  read  in  the 
poems  of  Garrick  and  Tliom])son  and  Pope.  George  II.,  when 
he  was  infonned  of  his  death,  could  not  but  exclaim  :  "  Now 
I  shall  have  no  more  peace."  To  the  astonishment  of  all  men, 
Newcastle,  declaring  he  had  been  second  minister  long  enougli, 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  treasury,  and  desired  Ilciiry 
Fox  to  accept  the  ofiice  of  secretary  of  state,  with  the  conduct 
of  the  public  business  in  the  lower  bouse. 

Fox  declining  the  promotion  offered  himj  the  inefficient 


'I.  I 


ACT  OF  PAR- 


1754. 


SHALL  PARLIAMENT  TAX  AMERICA? 


400 


Iloldenicssu  was  tranHfciretl  to  tlu'  iio-tliom  (lv:()!u-tmoiit ;  luid 
Sir  Thoiiuw  Kohinsou,  a  dull  pedant,  hiti-ly  u  Hiihordinatu  ut 
tlio  board  of  trade,  wan  Hulocted  for  tin-  soiitlu-ni,  with  the 
miiimf,'onieiit  of  the  now  liouae  of  conmiouH.     "Tho  duke," 
said  Pitt,  "  nught  as  well  wend  his  jackboot  to  lead  us."     Tho 
house  abounded  in  vuted  nieii.     Besides  Pitt  and   Fox  and 
Murray,  the  heroes  of  u  hundred  niagniticent  debates,  there 
was  "tho  universally  able"  Cieorgo  Grenville;  the  Hoh-nni  Sir 
George   Lyttelton,  known  as   a  poet,  historian,  and   orator; 
Hillsborough,  industrious,  precise,  well-meaning,  but  without 
sagacity;  the  arrogant,  un     bio  Sackville,  proud  of  his  birth, 
ambitious  of  tho  highest    ,  ,;  ons;  tho  amiable,  candid,  irreso- 
lute Conway ;  Charles  Tow    aend,  Hushed  with  eonlidence  in 
his  own  ability.     Then,  too,  the  young  Lord  Noi-th,  well  edu- 
cated, abounding  in  good-lunnor,  made  his  entrance  into  i)ublic 
life  with  such  imiversal  favor  that  every  company  resounded 
with  tho  praises  of  his  parts  and  merit.     But  Newcastle  had 
computed  what  ho  might  dare ;   at  the  elections,  cijrniption 
had  returned  a  majority  devoted  to  the  nunister  who  was  in- 
ca])able  of  settled  purposes  or  consistent  conduct.     The  period 
when  the  English  aristocracy  ruled  with  the  least  admixture 
of  royalty  or  ])opularity  was  the  period  when  the  British  em- 
igre was  the  worst  governed.     "  We  are  bi-ought  to  the  very 
hrink  of  the  precipice,"  said  Pitt  to  tho  house  of  conunons, 
"  where,  if  ever,  a  stand  must  be  made,  unless  you  will  degen- 
erate into  a  Httle  assembly,  semng  no  other  i)urpose  than  to 
register  tho  arbitrary  edicts  of  one  too  powerful  suljject."   "  We 
are  designed  to  be  an  api)endix"  to  the  house  of  lords. 

Sir  Thomas  Robinson  called  on  his  majority  to  show  spirit , 
''Can  gentlemen,"  he  demanded,  "can  merchants,  can  the 
house  bear,  if  eloquence  alone  is  to  carry  it  ?  I  hope  words 
alone  will  not  prevail ; "  and  the  majority  came  to  his  aid. 
George  II.  was  impatient  of  this  thraldom  to  the  aristocracy, 
but  was  too  old  to  resist.  The  lii-st  ]iolitical  lesson  which  his 
grandson,  Prince  George,  received  at  Leicester  house,  was  such 
a  use  of  the  form;,  of  the  British  constitution  as  should  emanci- 
pate the  royal  authority  from  its  dependence  on  a  io^y  great 
families.  In  this  way  Pitt  and  Prince  George  became  allies, 
moving  from  most  opposite  points  against  the  same  iuflueuco ; 


\      I 


".!   !: 


il-'li: 

1 

|n;?i, 

J 

410     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.  ;  en.  vii. 

Pitt  wishing  to  increase  the  force  of  popnUvr  representation, 
and  Prince  George  to  recover  independence  for  the  preroga- 
tive. 

These  terxdencies  foreshadowed  a  change  in  the  whig  party 
of  Enghmd.  It  must  be  renovated  or  dissolved.  With  cold 
and  uninipassioued  judgment,  they  had  seated  the  house  of 
Hanover  on  the  English  throne,  and  had  defended  the  wise 
and  deliberate  act  till  even  the  wounded  hereditary  propensi- 
ties of  the  rural  districts  of  the  nation  and  the  whole  aris- 
tocracy had  accepted  their  choice.  Murray  called  himself  a 
whig ;  and,  after  llardwicke,  was  their  oracle  on  questions  of 
law.  Cumberland,  JSTewcastle,  Devonshire,  Bedford,  Halifax, 
and  the  marquis  of  Rockingham  were  all  reputed  whigs. 
So  weve  George  and  Charles  Townshend,  the  young  Lord 
North,  Grenville,  Conway,  and  Sackville.  On  the  vital  ele- 
ments of  civil  liberty,  the  noble  families  which  led  the  sev- 
eral factions  had  no  systematic  opinions.  They  knew  not 
that  America,  which  demanded  their  attention,  would  create 
parties  in  England  on  questions  unknown  to  the  revolution 
of  1G88. 

The  province  of  New  York  had  replied  to  the  condemna- 
tion of  its  policy,  contained  in  Sir  Dauvers  Osborne's  instruc- 
tions, by  a  well-founded  impeachment  of  Clinton  for  embez- 
zling public  funds  and  concealing  it  by  false  accounts;  for 
gaining  undue  profits  from  extravagant  grants  of  lands,  and 
grants  to  himself  under  fictitious  names ;  and  for  selling  civil 
and  military  offices.  These  grave  accusations  were  neglected ; 
but  the  province  furtlier  complained  that  its  legislature  liad 
been  directed  to  obey  the  king's  instructions.  They  iusi.sted 
that  his  instnictions,  though  a  rule  of  conduct  to  his  gover- 
nor, were  not  to  the  people  the  measure  of  obedience ;  that  the 
nde  of  obedience  was  positive  law ;  that  a  command  to  giant 
money  was  neither  constitutional  nor  legal,  being  inconsistent 
with  the  freedom  of  debate  and  the  rights  of  the  assembly, 
whose  power  to  prepare  and  pass  the  bills  granting  money  was 
admitted  by  the  crown.  The  Newcastle  administration  did 
not  venture  to  eniorce  its  orders,  while  it  yet  apj)lauded  the 
conduct  of  the  board  of  trade,  and  summarily  condemned  New 
York  by  rejecting  its  loyal  justificatory  address  to  the  kllli.^ 


1754. 


SHALL  PAELIAMENT  TAX  AMERICA? 


411 


The  best  English  lawyers  questioned  more  and  more  the  le- 
gality of  a  government  by  royal  instructions. 

As  a  security  against  French  encroaclmients,  the  king,  lis- 
tening to  the  house  of  burgesses  of  Virginia,  instructed  the 
carl  of  All)emarle,  then  governor-in-chief  of  that  dominion, 
to  grant  lands  west  of  the  great  ridge  of  mountains  which  sep- 
arates the  rivers  Eoanoke,  James,  and  Potomac  from  the  Mis- 
sissijopi,  to  persons  desirous  of  settling  tliem,  in  quantities  of 
not  more  than  a  thousand  acres  for  any  one  person. 

As  a  further  measure,  Halifax,  by  the  royal  command,  in 
July  and  August,  proposed  an  American  union.  "A  certain 
and  permanent  revenue,"  with  a  proper  adjustment  of  quotas, 
was  to  be  determined  by  a  meeting  of  one  commissioner  from 
cacli  colony.  In  electing  the  commissioners,  the  council,  though 
appointed  by  the  king,  Avas  to  have  a  negative  on  the  assembly, 
and  th(^  royal  governor  to  have  a  negative  on  both.  The  col- 
ony that  failed  of  l)eing  represented  was  yet  to  be  bound  by 
the  result.  Seven  were  to  be  a  quorum,  and  of  these  a  ma- 
jority, with  the  king's  approbation,  were  to  bind  the  continent. 
The  executive  department  was  to  be  intnisted  to  one  com- 
inander-in-chief,  who  should,  at  the  same  time,  be  the  commis- 
sary-general for  Indian  affairs.  To  meet  his  expenses,  he  was 
"to  be  empowered  to  draw"  on  the  treasuries  of  the  colonies 
for  sums  proportionate  to  their  respective  quotas.  A  disobedi- 
ent or  neglectful  province  was  to  be  reduced  by  "  the  authority 
of  i)arrament,"  whose  inteii^osition  was  e(iualiy  to  be  appHed 
for,  if  the  plan  of  union  should  fail.  Xo  earnest  effort  was 
ever  made  to  carry  this  despotic,  complicated,  and  impracticable 
plun  into  effect.  It  does  but  mark,  in  the  mind  of  Halifax  and 
his  associates,  the  moment  of  that  i)ause  which  preceded  the 
definitive  purpose  of  settling  all  questions  of  an  American 
revenue,  government,  and  union  by  what  seemed  the  effective, 
simple,  and  uniform  system  of  a  general  taxation  of  America 
by  the  British  legislature. 

"  If  the  several  assemblies,"  ^vi-ote  Thomas  Penn  from  Eng- 
land, "M-ill  not  make  provision  for  the  general  service,  an  act 
ot  pariiament  may  oblige  them  here."  "  The  assemblies,"  said 
Dinwiddle,  of  Virginia,  "  are  obstinate,  self-oi)inionated,  a  stub- 
l>'M-n  generation,"  and  he  advised  a  universal  poll-tax  "  to  bring 


412    CONQUEST  OF  THE  "WEST  AND  CANADA. 


El*.  I. ;  cii.  vii. 


the  provinces  to  a  sense  of  tlieir  duty."     Sbarpe,  of  Mai-yland 
held  it  "  possible,  if  not  probable,  that  parliament,  at  its  very- 
next  session,  would  raise  a  fund  in  the  several  provinces  by  a 
poll-tax,"'  or  imposts,  "  or  a  stamp  duty,"  which  last  method  he 
at  that  time  favored. 

Charles  To^vnshend  woidd  have  shipped  three  thousand 
regulars,  with  three  hundred  thousand  pounds,  to  New  Eng- 
land, to  train  its  inhabitants,  and,  through  them,  to  conquer 
Canada.  But  the  administration  confessed  its  indecision,  and 
in  October,  Avhile  it  sent  pacific  messages  "  to  the  French  ad- 
ministration, particularly  to  Madame  de  Pompadour  and  tlie 
Duke  de  Mirepoix,"  the  conduct  of  American  affairs  was  aljau- 
doned  to  the  duke  of  Cumberland,  captain-general  of  the  Brit- 
ish army,  a  man  without  capacity  for  action  or  counsel. 

The  French  ministry  desired  to  trust  the  assurances  of  Eng- 
land. Giving  discretionary  jiower  in  case  of  a  rupture,  tlicy 
instructed  Ducpiesne  to  act  only  on  the  defensive ;  but  Cumber- 
land entered  on  his  American  career  Avith  eager  ostentation. 

For  the  American  major-general  and  commander-in-chief, 
Edward  ]3raddock  was  selected,  a  man  in  fortunes  desi)erate,  in 
manners  bmtal,  in  temper  despotic;  obstinate  and  intrepid; 
expert  in  the  niceties  of  a  review ;  harsh  in  disciphne.  As 
the  duke  had  confidence  only  in  regular  troops,  he  repelled  all 
assistance  from  the  colonies  by  ordering  that  the  general  and 
field-officers  of  the  provincial  forces  should  have  no  rank  when 
serving  Avith  the  general  and  field-officers  commissioned  by  the 
king.  Disgusted  at  this  order,  Washington  retired  from  the 
service,  and  his  regiment  Avas  broken  up. 

The  active  participation  in  affairs  by  Cumberland  again  con- 
nected Henry  Fox  with  their  direction.  This  unscrupulous 
man,  having  "privately  forsworn  all  connection  witli  Pitt,'' 
entered  the  cabinet  without  office,  and  undertook  the  conduct 
of  the  house  of  commons.  Cumberland  had  caused  the  Eng- 
lish mutiny  bill  to  be  revised,  and  its  ngor  doubled.  On  a 
sudden,  at  a  most  unusual  period  in  the  session,  Fox  sliowed 
Lord  Egmont  a  clause  for  extending  the  mutiny  bill  to  America, 
and  subjecting  the  colonial  militia,  when  in  actual  service,  to 
its  terrible  severity.  Egmont  interceded  to  protect  America 
from  tills  new  grievance  of  military  law  ;  but  Cliarlcs  Towns- 


1754. 


SHALL  PARLIAMENT  TAX  AMERICA? 


413 


lieiid  defended  the  measure,  and,  tnniing  to  Lord  Egmont,  ex- 
cliiinied  :  "  Take  the  poor  American  by  the  hand  and  point  out 
his  grievances.  I  defy  you,  I  beseech  you,  to  point  out  one 
gi-ievance.  I  know  not  of  one."  He  pronounced  a  paneg^nic 
on  the  l)oard  of  trade,  and  defended  all  their  acts,  in  particu- 
lar the  instnictions  to  Sir  Danvers  Osborne.  The  petition  of 
the  agent  of  ^Massachusetts  was  not  allowed  to  be  brought  up  ; 
tliat  to  the  house  of  lords  no  one  would  otfer ;  and  the  bill, 
with  tlie  clause  for  /  ^erica,  was  hurried  through  parliament. 

It  is  confidently  slated,  by  the  agent  of  Massachusetts,  that 
a  noble  lord  had  then  a  bill  in  liis  pocket,  ready  to  be  brought 
in,  to  ai?certain  and  regulate  the  colonial  quotas.  All  England 
was  pei-suaded  of  "  the  perverseness  of  the  assemblies,"  and 
inquiries  were  instituted  relating  to  the  easiest  method  of  tax- 
ation by  pariiament.  But,  for  the  moment,  the  prerogative 
was  employed  ;  Braddock  was  ordered  to  exact  a  common  reve- 
nue ;  and  all  the  governors  received  the  king's  pleasure  "  that 
a  fund  be  established  foi-  the  benefit  of  all  the  colonies  collec- 
tively in  North  America." 

Men  in  England  expected  obedience;  but,  in  Decemlier, 
Delancey  referi-ed  to  "  the  general  opinion  of  the  congress  at 
All)any,  that  the  colonies  would  differ  in  their  measures  and 
diisagreo  about  their  quotas ;  without  the  interposition  of  the 
British  parliament  to  ol)lige  them,"  nothing  would  be  done. 

In  the  same  moment,  Shirley,  at  Boston,  was  planning  how 
the  common  fund  could  l)e  made  efficient ;  and  to  Franklin, 
who,  in  I)ecenil)er  1754,  revisited  the  town,  he  submitted  a 
new  scheme  of  union.  A  congress  of  governors  and  deloirates 
from  the  councils  was  to  be  invested  with  ])ower  at  their  meet- 
ings to  adopt  m(?asures  of  defence,  and  to  draw  for  all  necessary 
moneys  on  the  treasury  of  Great  I  Britain,  which  was  to  be  re- 
imbursed by  parliamentary  taxes  on  America. 

"  The  people  "n  the  colonies,"  replied  Franklin,  "are  better 
judges  of  the  necessary  preparations  for  defence,  and  their  OAvn 
nbilitics  to  bear  them.  Governors  often  come  to  the  colonies 
merely  to  make  fortunes,  with  which  they  intend  to  return  to 
Ih-itain  ;  are  not  always  men  of  tlie  best  abilities  or  integrity; 
and  have  no  natural  connection  with  us,  that  should  make  them 
heiU'lily  concerned  for  our  welfare.     The  councillors  in  most 


i  i 


ill 


i  ill    '  t    4 


414    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  cii.  vii. 

of  the  colonies  are  appointed  by  tlie  crown,  on  the  reccm- 
nicndation  of  governors ;  frequently  depend  on  the  governors 
for  office,  and  are,  therefore,  too  much  under  influence.  There 
is  reason  to  be  jealous  of  a  power  in  such  governors.  They 
might  abuse  it  merely  to  create  employments,  gratify  depend- 
ents, and  divide  proflts."  Besides,  the  mercantile  system  of 
England  already  extorted  a  secondary  tribute  from  America. 
In  addition  to  the  benefit  to  England  from  the  increasing  de- 
mand for  English  manufactures,  the  wealth  of  the  colonies,  by 
the  British  acts  of  trade,  centred  finally  among  the  merchants 
and  inhabitants  of  the  metropolis. 

Against  taxation  of  the  colonies  by  parliament,  Frankhn 
urged  that  it  would  lead  to  dangerous  feuds  and  inevitable 
confusion ;  that  parliament,  being  at  a  great  distance,  was  sub- 
ject to  be  misinformed  and  misled,  and  was,  therefore,  imsuited 
to  the  exercise  of  this  power ;  that  it  was  the  undoubted  right 
of  Englishmen  not  to  be  taxed  but  by  their  own  consent, 
through  their  representatives ;  that  to  propose  taxation  by  par- 
liament, rather  than  1)y  a  colonial  representative  body,  implied 
a  distrust  of  the  loyalty  or  the  patriotism  or  the  understanding 
of  the  colonies ;  that  to  compel  them  to  pay  money  without 
tlieii-  consent  would  be  rather  like  raising  contributions  in  an 
enemy's  country  than  taxing  Englishmer.  for  tlieir  o\to  benefit ; 
and,  finally,  that  the  principle  involved  in  the  measure  would, 
if  carried  out,  lead  to  a  tax  upon  them  all  by  act  of  parliament 
for  support  of  government,  and  to  the  disuse  of  colonial  assem- 
blies, as  a  needless  part  of  the  constitution. 

Shirley  next  jn-oposed  the  plan  of  uniting  the  colonies 
more  intimately  with  Great  Britain  by  allowing  them  repre- 
sentatives in  parliament ;  and  Franklin  replied  that  unity  of 
government  should  l)e  followed  by  a  real  unity  of  country ;  that 
it  would  not  be  acceptable,  unless  a  reasonable  numbci'  of  rep- 
resentatives were  allowed,  all  laws  restraining  the  trade  or  the 
manufactures  of  the  colonies  were  repealed,  and  England,  ceas- 
ing to  regard  the  colonies  as  tributary  to  its  industry,  were  to 
foster  the  merchant,  the  smith,  the  hatter  in  America  equally 
with  those  on  her  own  soil. 

Unable  to  move  Franklin,  Shirley  renewed  to  the  secretary 
of  state  his  representations  of  the  necessity  of  a  union  of  the 


1755. 


SHALL  PAKLIAMENT  TAX  AMERICA? 


415 


colonies,  to  be  fonned  in  England  and  enforced  by  act  of  par- 
liament. At  tlie  same  time,  be  warned  against  Franklin's  Al- 
bany plan,  wbicb  be  described  as  tbe  application  of  tbe  old 
republican  cliarter  system,  such  as  prevtuled  in  Ehode  Island 
and  Connecticut,  to  tbe  fonnation  of  an  American  confederacy, 
Tbe  system,  said  be,  is  unfit  for  a  particular  colony ;  and  mucb 
more  uniit  for  a  general  goveniment  over  a  union  of  tbem  all. 

Early  in  1755,  Sbiriey  enforced  to  tbe  secretary  of  state 
"  tbe  necessity  not  only  of  a  pariiamentary  union,  but  taxa- 
tion."    During  tbe  winter,  Sliarpe,  wbo  bad  been  appointed 
temporarily  to  tbe  cbief  connnand  in  America,  vainly  solicited 
aid  from  every  i)rovinco,     New  Ilampsbire,  altbougb  weak 
and  young,  '^  took  every  opportunity  to  force  acts  contrary  to 
the  king's  instructions  and  prerogative,"     Tbe  cbaracter  of  tbe 
Kbode  Island  govermnent  gave  "  no  great  prospect  of  assist- 
ance,"    Xew  York  besitated  in  providing  quarters  for  Eritisb 
soldiers,  and  Mould  contribute  to  a  general  fund  only  wben 
others  did,     New  Jersey  sbowed  "  tbe  greatest  contempt "  for 
the  repeated  solicitations  of  its  aged  governor.     In  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  ]\[aryland,  in  Soutb  Carolina,  tbe  grants  of  money  by 
the  assemblies  were  negatived,  because  tbey  were  connected 
with  tbe  encroachments  of  popular  power  on  tbe  prerogative, 
"  schemes  of  future  independency,"  "  tbe  gras])ing  at  the  dis- 
position of  all  pubUc  money  and  filbng  all  offices ; "  and  in 
each  instance  tbe  veto  excited  a  great  flame.     Tbe  assembly  of 
Pemisylvania,  in  March,  borrowed  money  and  issued  bills  of 
credit  by  their  own  resolves,  without  the  assent  of  tbe  gov- 
ernor.   "  Tbey  are  the  more  dangerous,"  said  Morris,  "  because 
a  future  assembly  may  use  those  powers  against  the  govern- 
ment l)y  wbicb  tbey  are  now  protected;"  and  be  constantly 
sohcited  tbe  interference  of  England.     Tbe  pnnnncial  press 
engaged  in  the  strife.     "  Redress,"  said  the  Pennsylvania  roy- 
alists, "  if  it  comes,  nuist  come  from  bis  majesty  and  tbe  Brit- 
isli  pariiament."     The  Quakers  looked  to  the  same  authority, 
not  for  taxation,  but  for  tbe  al)olition  of  tbe  ]-)roprietary  rule. 

Tbe  contest  along  tbe  American  frontier  was  raging  fiercely, 
when,  in  January  1755,  France  proposed  to  England  to  leave 
the  Ohio  valley  as  it  was  before  tbe  last  war,  and  at  the  same 
time  inquired  tbe  '>iotive  of  the  armament  which  was  making 


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416    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  vii. 

in  Ireland.  Braddock,  with  two  regiments,  was  already  on  the 
way  to  America,  when  Newcastle  gave  assurances  that  defence 
only  was  intended,  that  the  general  peace  should  not  be  broken  • 
and  offered  to  leave  the  Ohio  valley  as  it  had  been  at  the  treaty 
of  Utrecht.  Mirepoix,  in  reply,  was  willing  that  both  the 
Freneli  and  English  should  retire  from  the  country  between 
the  Ohio  and  the  Alleghanies,  and  leave  that  territory  neutral 
which  woiild  have  secured  to  his  sovereign  all  the  country 
north  and  west  of  the  Ohio ;  England,  on  the  contrar}',  de- 
manded that  France  should  destroy  all  her  forts  as  far  as  tlie 
Wabash,  raze  Niagara  and  Crown  Point,  sui-rcnder  the  penin- 
sula of  Nova  Scotia,  with  a  strip  of  land  twenty  leagues  wide 
along  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  the  Atlantic,  and  leave  the  inter- 
mediate country  to  the  St.  Lawrence  a  neutral  desert.  These 
proposals  met  Avith  no  acceptance  ;  yet  both  parties  professed 
a  desire  to  investigate  and  arrange  all  disputed  points;  and 
Louis  XY.,  while  he  sent  three  thousand  men  to  America,  lield 
liimseK  ready  to  sacrilice  for  peace  all  but  honor  and  the  pro- 
tection due  to  his  subjects ;  consenting  that  New  England 
should  reach  on  the  east  to  the  Penobscot,  on  the  north  to  the 
watershed  of  the  highlands. 

While  the  negotiations  were  pending,  Braddock  arrived  in 
the  Chesapeake.  In  March,  he  reached  Williamsburg,  and 
visited  Aimapolis  ;  on  the  fourteenth  of  April,  he,  with  Com- 
modore Keppel,  hold  a  congress  at  Alexandria.  There  were 
present,  of  the  American  governors,  Shirley,  next  to  Braddock 
in  military  rank ;  Delanccy,  of  New  York ;  Morris,  of  Penn- 
sylvania ;  Sharpe,  of  Maryland  ;  and  Diiiwiddie,  of  Virginia. 
Braddock  directed  their  attention,  first  of  all,  to  the  sniijcct  of 
a  colonial  revenue,  on  which  his  instructions  commanded  him 
to  insist,  and  his  anger  kindled  "  that  no  such  fund  was  already 
established."  The  governors  present,  recapitulating  their 
strifes  with  their  assemblies,  made  answer  :  "  Such  a  fund  can 
never  he  established  in  the  colonies  without  the  aid  of  padia- 
ment.  Ilavhig  found  it  impracticable  to  obtain  in  their  re- 
spective govennuents  the  proportion  expected  by  his  majesty 
toward  defraying  the  expense  of  his  service  in  North  America, 
they  are  unanimously  of  opinion  that  it  should  be  proposed  to 
his  majesty's  ministers  to  find  out  some  method  of  compelling 


1755. 


SHALL  PARLIAMENT  TAX  AMERICA? 


417 

them  to  do  it,  and  of  assessing  the  several  governments  in  pro- 
portion to  tlieir  respective  abilities."  This  imposing  docu- 
ment 15raddock  sent  forthwith  to  the  ministry,  himself  urging 
the  necessity  of  laying  some  tax  throughout  his  majesty's  do- 
mmions  in  North  America.  Dinwiddle  reiterated  his  old 
advice.  Sharpe  recommended  that  the  governor  and  council, 
without  the  assembly,  should  have  i)ower  to  levy  money  "after 
any  manner  that  may  be  deemed  most  ready  and  convenient " 
"A  common  fund,"  so  Shirley  assured  his  colleagues,  on  the 
authority  of  the  British  secretary  of  state,  "  must  be  either 
voluntarily  raised,  or  assessed  in  some  other  way." 

I  have  had  in  my  hands  vast  masses  of  correspondence, 
including  letters  from  servants  of  the  crown  in  every  royal 
colony  in  America ;  from  civihans,  as  well  as  from  Braddock 
and  Dunbar  and  Gage ;  from  Delancey  and  Sharpe,  as  well 
as  from  Dinwiddle  and  Shirley;  and  all  were  of  the  same 
tenor.  The  British  ministry  heard  one  general  clamor  from 
men  in  office  for  taxation  by  act  of  parliament.  « In  an  act 
of  parliament  for  a  general  fund,"  wrote  Shirley,  "  I  have 
great  reason  to  think  the  people  Avill  readily  acquiesce." 

In  England,  the  government  was  more  and  more  inclined 
to  enforce  the  permanent  authority  of  Great  Britain.    No  as- 
sembly had  with  more  energy  assumed  the  management  of  the 
provincial  treasury  t]um  that  of  South  Carolina ;  and  Eichard 
Lyttelton,  brother  of  Sir  George  Lyttelton,  who,  in  November 
1T55,  became  chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  was  sent  to  recover 
the  autliority  which  had  been  impaired  by  "  the  unmanly  fa- 
cilities of  former  rulers."    Pennsylvania  had,  in  January  1755, 
professed  its  loyalty,  and  explained  the  danger  to  chartered 
liberties  from  proprietary  instructions ;  but,  after  a  hearing 
before  the  board  of  trade,  the  address  of  the  colonial  legisla- 
ture to  their  sovereign,  like  that  of  New  York  in  the  former 
year,  was  dischunfully  rejected.     Petitions  for  reimbursements 
and  aids  were  received  witli  displeasure;  the  people  of  New 
England  were  treated  as  desiring  to  be  paid  for  protecting 
themselves.     The  reimbursement  of  Massachusetts  for  taking 
Louisburg  was  now  condemned,  as  a  subsidy  to  subjects  who 
liad  only  done  their  duty.     "  You  must  light  for  your  own 
aitm-s  and  firesides,"  was  L..r  Thomas  liobinsou's  answer  to  the 
VOL.  II. — 27 


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418    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  en.  vu. 

American  agents,  as  they  were  bandied  to  himself  from  New- 
castle, and  from  both  to  Halifax.  Halifax  alone  had  decision 
and  a  plan.  In  July  1755,  he  insisted  with  the  ministry  on  a 
"  general  system  to  ease  the  mother  country  of  the  great  and 
heavy  expenses  with  which  it  of  late  years  was  burdenod." 
The  administration  resolved  "  to  raise  funds  for  American  af- 
faii-s  by  a  stamp  duty,  and  a  duty  "  on  products  of  the  foreign 
West  Indies  imported  into  the  continental  colonies.  The 
English  press  advocated  an  impost  in  the  northern  colonies  on 
West  India  products,  "  and  likewise  that,  by  act  of  parliament, 
there  be  a  further  fimd  established  "  from  "  stamped  paper." 
This  tax,  it  wixa  conceived,  would  yield  "  a  very  large  sum." 
Huske,  an  American,  writing  under  the  j)atronage  of  Charles 
Townshend,  urged  a  reform  in  the  colonial  administration,  and 
moderate  taxation  by  parliament.  Delancey,  in  August,  liad 
hinted  to  the  New  York  assembly  that  a  "  stamp  duty  would 
be  so  diffused  as  to  be  in  a  manner  insensible."  That  province 
objected  to  a  stamp  tax  as  oppressive,  thougli  not  to  a  moder- 
ate impost  on  West  India  products ;  and  the  voice  of  "Massa- 
chusetts was  unheeded,  when,  in  November,  it  instructed  its 
agent  "to  oppose  everything  that  shor'i  have  the  remotest 
tendency  to  raise  a  revenue  in  the  plantations."  Those  wlio 
once  promised  opposition  to  an  American  revenue  that  sliould 
come  under  the  direction  of  the  government  in  England,  re- 
solved rather  to  sustain  it,  and  the  next  winter  was  to  uitro- 
duce  the  new  policy. 

The  civilized  world  was  just  beginning  to  give  attention  to 
the  colonies.  Ilutcheson,  the  able  Irish  writer  on  ethics — 
who,  without  the  power  of  thoroughly  reforming  the  theory 
of  morals,  knew  that  it  needed  a  reform,  and  was  certain  that 
truth  and  right  have  a  foundation  within  us,  though,  swayed 
by  the  material  philosophy  of  his  times,  he  sought  that  foun- 
dation not  in  pure  reason,  but  in  a  moral  sense — saw  no  wTong 
in  the  coming  independence  of  America.  "When,"  he  in- 
quired, "  have  colonies  a  right  to  be  released  from  the  domin- 
ion of  the  parent  state  ? "  And  this  year  his  opinion  saw  the 
light :  "  Whenever  they  are  so  increased  in  nund)ers  and 
strength  as  to  be  sufficient  by  themselves  for  all  the  good  ends 
of  a  political  union." 


EP.  I. ;  on.  Tii. 


1755.  BEGINNING   OF  THE  WAR   WITH  FRANCE. 


419 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ENGL.iNl)  AND  FRANCE  CONTEND  FOR  THE  OHIO  VALLEY  AND  FOR 

ACADIA.     Newcastle's  administration  continued. 

1755. 

The  events  of  the  summer  strengthened  the  purpose,  but 
delayed  the  period,  of  taxation  by  parliament.     Between  Eng- 
land and  France  peace  existed  under  ratiiied  treaties;  it  wa« 
pn.posed  not  to  invade  Canada,  but  to  repel  encroachments  on 
the  frontier.     For  this  end,  four  expeditions  were  concerted 
by  Lraddock  at  Alexandria.     Lawrence,  the  lieutenant-gover- 
nor of  Nova  Scotia,  was  to  reduce  that  province  accorcUng  to 
the  English  interpretation  of  its  boundaries;  Johnson,  from  his 
lo..g  acquaintance  with  the  Six  Nations,  was  selected  to  enroll 
Mohawk  warriors  in  British  pay,  and  lead  them  with  provincial 
mihtia  against  Crown  Point ;  Shirley  proposed  to  drive  the 
l^rench  from  Niagara;  the  commander-in-chief  was  to  recover 
the  Ohio  valley. 

Soon  after  Braddock  sailed  from  Em-ope,  the  French  sent 
re-enforcements  to  Canada  under  the  veteran  Dieskau.  Bos- 
cawen,  with  English  ships,  followed  in  their  track;  and  when 
the  French  ambassador,  who  waB  still  at  London,  expressed 
some  uneasiness  on  the  occasion,  he  had  been  assured  that  the 
i-nghsh  would  not  begin  hostiKties.  At  six  o'clock,  on  the 
ev-eiiing  of  the  seventh  of  Jmie,  the  Alcide,  the  Lys,  and  the 
Uau])hin,  that  had  for  several  days  been  separated  from  their 
s<iuadron,  fell  in  with  the  British  fleet  off  Cape  Race.  Be- 
tween ten  and  eleven  in  the  morning  of  the  eighth,  the  Al- 
cule,  under  Hocquart,  was  within  hearing  of  the  Dunkirk,  a 
vessel  of  sixty  guns,  commanded  by  Howe.  "Are  we  at 
peace  or  war ?"  asked  Hocquart.     The  French  aliim  that 


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420     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i,  ;  cit.  vi:i. 


i     I 


tho  answer  to  tlieiu  was,  "  Peace !  Peace !  "  till  Boscaweu  gave 
the  signal  to  engage.  Howe,  who  was  m  brave  us  he  was  taci- 
turn, obeyed  the  order  promptly ;  and  the  Alcide  and  Lys 
yieldi'd  to  sui)erior  force.  The  Dau[)hin.  being  a  good  sailer, 
scud  safely  for  Lonisburg.  Nine  more  of  the  French  8(p:a(l- 
ron  came  in  sight  of  the  I'ritish,  but  were  not  intercej)ted ; 
and,  before  June  was  gone,  ]>ieskau  and  his  troops,  with  Vau- 
dreuil,  who  supei"seded  Duquesne  as  governor  of  Canada,  land- 
ed at  Ciuebec,  Vaudreuil  was  a  Caiuidiau  by  birth,  had  served 
in  Canada,  and  been  governor  of  Louisiana ;  his  countrymen 
Hocked  about  him  to  bid  him  welcome. 

From  Williamsburg,  Praddock  sent  word  to  Newcastle  that 
he  would  be  "  beyond  the  mountains  of  Alleghany  by  the  cud 
of  April ; "  at  Alexandria,  in  April,  he  promised  tidings  of 
his  successes  by  an  express  to  be  sent  in  June.  At  Frederick- 
town,  where  he  halted  for  carriages,  he  said  to  Franklin :  ''  Af- 
ter taking  Fort  Ducpiesne,  I  am  to  proceed  to  Niagara,  and, 
having  taken  that,  to  Frontenac.  Ducpiesne  can  hardly  detain 
me  above  three  or  four  days,  and  then  1  see  nothing  that  can 
obstmct  my  march  to  Niagara."  "  The  Indians  are  dexterous 
in  laying  and  execnting  ambuscades,"  replied  Franklin,  who 
culled  to  mind  the  French  invasion  of  the  Chicasas,  and  the 
death  of  Artaguette  and  Vincenncs.  "  The  savages,"  answered 
Braddock,  "  may  l)e  formidal)le  to  your  raw  American  militia ; 
upon  the  king's  regulars  and  disciplined  troops,  it  is  im])ossible 
they  should  make  any  impression."  The  little  army  was  "  un- 
able to  move,  for  want  of  horses  and  carriages  ;  "  but  Franklin, 
by  his  "  great  influence  in  Pennsylvania,"  sui)i)Ued  both  with  a 
"  promptitude  and  probity  "  which  extorted  ])raise  from  Brad- 
dock  and  unanimous  thanks  from  the  assend)ly  of  his  province. 
Among  the  wagonere  was  Daniel  Morgan,  famed  in  village 
groups  as  a  wrestler,  skilful  in  the  use  of  the  musket,  who 
emigrated  as  a  day-laborer  from  New  Jersey  to  Virginia,  and, 
Inisbanding  his  wages,  became  the  ownier  of  a  team.  At  Will's 
creek,  which  took  tho  name  of  Cumberland,  Washington,  in 
May,  joined  the  expedition  as  one  of  the  general's  aids. 

Seven-and-twenty  days  passed  in  the  march  from  Alexan- 
dina  to  Cumberland,  where  two  thousand  effective  men  were 
assembled;    among  them,  two  independent  companies  from 


p.  I. ;  cn.  vKi. 


1755. 


BRADUOCK'S  DEFEAT, 


421 


Now  York,  un(I(.r  tl.o  command  of  Horatio  Gates.  "Tho 
Amcncaii  troops,"  Avroto  liruddock,  -  l.avt)  littlo  courup,  or 
^'ood-will;  r  expect  from  them  almost  no  military  Herviee 
though  [  have  etMi)|()yed  the  host  oiHcers  to  ih-ill  them  •  "  imd 
lie  iiiHulted  the  coiuitrj  as  void  of  ability,  honor,  and  intc-rity 
I'Tlic  general  is  hrave,"  said  hin  secretary, you. ig  Shirley,  "ami 
m  pi'cuniary  matters  honest,  but  disqualiHed  f„r  the  service  ho 
IS  employed  in;"  and  Washington  found  him  "incapable  of 
arguing  without  warmth,  or  giving  up  any  poi„t  he  liad  ii^sert- 
ed,  be  it  ever  so  incompatible  with  common  sense." 

From  Oum])erlan<l  to  the  fork  of  tlie  Ohio  the  distance  is 
less  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles.  On  tlie  last  day  of 
May,  five  hundred  men  were  sent  for^vard  to  open  the  niads 
and  store  provisions  at  Little  ALeadows.  Sir  Peter  llalket 
followed  with  the  first  brigade,  and  June  was  advancing  before 
the  general  was  in  motion  with  the  second.  Meantime,  Fort 
Duquesne  was  receiving  re-enforcements.  "We  shall 'have 
more  to  do,"  said  Washington,  "than  to  go  up  the  hills  and 
come  down." 

Tlic  military  road  was  carried,  not  through  the  gorge  in  the 
mountain,  which  was  then  impassable,  hut,  with  infinite  toil, 
over  the  hills.  The  army  followed  in  a  slender  line,  nearly 
four  miles  loner. 

On  the  nineteenth  of  Juno,  Braddock,  by  Washington's 
advice,  leaving  Dunbar  to  follow  with  the  residue  of  the  army, 
pushed  forward  with  twelve  hundred  chosen  men.  Yet  still 
they  stopped  to  level  every  molehill,  and  erect  bridges  over 
every  creek.  On  the  eighth  of  July,  they  arrived  at  the  fork 
of  the  Monongahela  and  Youghiogeny  rivers.  The  distance  to 
Fort  Dufpiesne  was  but  twelve  miles,  and  the  governor  of  Now 
France  gave  it  up  as  lost. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  ninth,  the  troops  of  Braddock 
forded  the  tranquil  Monongahela  just  below  the  mouth  of  Tur- 
tle creek,  and  marched  on  its  southern  bank.  At  noon  they 
forded  the  i\ronongaliela  again,  and  stood  between  the  rivers 
that  form  the  Ohio,  only  ten  miles  distant  from  the  fork.  A 
detachment  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  men,  led  l)y  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Thomas  Gage,  and  closely  attended  by  a  working  purty 
uf  two  hundred  and  fifty  under  St.  Clair,  advanced  cautiously, 


!'  I/! 


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423     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep,  i.  ;  on.  viu. 

with  j^iides  aiicl  tlaukiiij^  purticH,  alonjij  a  path  but  twelve  feet 
wide,  toward  the  uneven  woody  country  that  was  between  them 
and  Kort  DiKjuesne.  Ih-achloek  "  waa  too  sure  of  \  ietory,  and 
had  not  scouts  out  before  the  army  to  diseover  the  enemy  in 
tlieir  hiriiing  places."  The  l)arty  with  (Jago  ascem'jd  the  liill 
till  they  gained  the  point  where  they  turned  the  ravine.  Tlie 
ground  then  on  their  left  sloped  downward  toward  the  river 
bank ;  on  their  right,  it  nj.^e,  tirst  gradually,  then  suddenly,  to 
a  high  ridge.  The  main  body  of  the  army  was  following,  when 
"  the  general  was  surpriseil "  by  a  very  heavy  and  quick  tire  in 
the  front. 

Aware  of  his  movements  by  the  fidelity  of  their  scouts,  the 
French  had  resolved  on  an  ambuscade.  Twice  in  council  the 
Indians  declined  the  enterprise.  "•  I  shall  go,"  said  IJeaujeu, 
the  commandant  at  Fort  Du(iuesne,  "  and  will  you  suffer  your 
father  to  go  alone  ?  I  am  sure  wc  shall  conquer."  Tlecover- 
ing  confidence,  they  pledged  themselves  to  be  his  comjjanions. 
At  an  early  hour,  ContrecoMir  detached  Beaujeu,  Dmuas,  and 
Lignery,  with  less  than  two  hundn-d  and  thirty  French  and 
Canadians,  and  six  hundred  and  thirty-seven  savages,  under 
orders  to  repair  to  a  favorable  spot  selected  the  preceding  even- 
ing. IJefore  reaching  it,  they  found  themselves  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  English,  who  were  advancing  in  good  order,  and 
Beaujeu  instantly  attacked  them  with  the  utmost  vivacity. 
Gage  should,  on  the  moment,  have  sent  support  to  his  flanking 
parties,  but,  from  natural  indecision,  failed  to  do  so.  The  flank- 
ing guards  were  driven  in,  and  the  advanced  party,  leaving 
their  two  six-pounders  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  were  thrown 
back  upon  the  vanguard  which  the  ^  :x'ral  had  sent  as  a  re- 
enforcement,  and  which  was  attempting  to  form  in  face  of  the 
rising  ground  on  the  right.  The  men  of  both  regiments  were 
crowded  together  in  promiscuous  confusion.  The  general  hur- 
ried forward  with  his  artillery,  which,  thougli  it  could  do  little 
liann,  as  it  played  against  an  enemy  whom  the  woods  con- 
cealed, yet  made  the  savages  waver.  At  this  time,  Beaujeu 
fell,  when  the  brave  and  humane  Dumas,  taking  the  connnantl, 
sent  the  savages  to  attack  the  English  in  flank,  \vhile  he,  with 
the  French  and  Canadians,  continued  the  combat  in  front. 

But  Braddoek  "  did  not  allow  his  men  to  go  to  trees,  and 


'.  !. ;  on.  VIII. 


1755. 


lUJADDOCK'S  DEFEAT. 


428 


h^lit  tlic  Iiulians  in  tliuir  own  way."  Tlio  suva^.es,  "  protected 
by  the  trcH,  on  their  sechig"  the  British  ''forces  march  in  a 
body,  Hi)r."a(l  themselves  in  u  ercHcent,  or  hall-moon,  hy  which 
they  had  the  advantage  on  every  «ido."  *  Posted  behind  largo 
trees  "  in  the  front  of  the  troops,  and  on  the  iiills  which  over- 
hung the  right  Hank,"  invisible,  yet  making  the  wood-  re-echo 
then-  war-whoo]),  they  fired  with  deadly  aim  at  "the  fair  mark" 
oifered  by  the  "  compact  body  of  men  beneath  them."  None 
of  the  English  that  were  engaged  would  say  they  saw  a  hun- 
dred of  the  enemy,  and  "many  of  the  oliicers,  who  were  in 
the  heat  of  the  action  the  whole  time,  would  not  .-issert  that 
they  saw  one ; "  and  they  could  only  retm-n  the  lire  at  random 
in  the  direction  from  which  it  came. 

The  cond)at  continued  for  two  hours,  with  scarcely  any 
change  in  the  disposition  of  either  side.     The  regulars,  terri- 
liod  by  the  yells  of  the  IncUans,  and  dispirited  by  a  manner  of 
iighting  such  as  they  had  never  imagined,  contrary  to  orders, 
gathered  themselves  into  a  body  ten  or  twelve  deep,  and  woidd 
then  level,  iii'e,  and  shoot  down  men  before  them.    The  ofKcers 
bravely  advanced,  sometimes  at  the  head  of  small  bodies,  some- 
times separately,  but  ^vere  sacrificed  by  the  soldiers,  who  de- 
clined to  follow  them,  and  even  tired  upon  them  from  the  rear. 
Of  eighty-six  oliicers,  twenty-six  were  killed,  among  them  Sir 
Peter  Ilalket,  and  t.Mrty-seven  were  wounded,  including  Gage 
and  (,ther  field-officers.     Of  the  men,  one  half  were  killed  or 
wounded.     Praddock  braved  every  danger.    His  secretary  was 
shot  dead ;  both  his  English  aids  were  disabled  early  in  the  en- 
gagement, leaving  Washingtcm  alone  to  distribute  his  orders. 
"I  expected  every  moment,"  said  one  whose  eye  was  on  him, 
"to  see  him  fall."     He  had  two  horses  shot  under  him,  and 
four  l)ullets  through  his  coat,  yet  escaped  without  a  womid. 
"  Death,"  wrote  Washington,  "  was  levelling  my  companions 
on  every  side  of  me ;  but,  by  the  all-powerful  dispensation  of 
Providence,  I  have  been  protected."     "To  the  public,"  said 
Sanuiel  Davies,  a  learned  Virginia  divine,  in  the  following 
month,  "  I  point  out  that  heroic  youth,  Colonel  Washington, 
whom  I  caimot  but  hope  Providence  has  preserved  in  so  signal 
a  manner  for  some  important  service  to  his  country."     "  Who 

*  Compare  Diuwiddio  to  Halifax,  1  October,  175"..     MS. 


i     I 


I  M.i 


i  Mi 


42i     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA.    ki>.  i.  ;  cii.  vm. 


i  J    !      J!    I :  ir 


I 


is  Mr.  Wasliiiigton  ? "  asked  Lord  Halifax,  a  few  montlis  kter. 
" I  know  nothing  of  him,"  he  added,  "hut  that  they  say  he  he- 
haved  in  Braddock's  action  as  bravely  as  if  he  really  loved  tlie 
whistling  of  bullets."  The  Virginia  troops  showed  great  valor, 
and,  of  tliree  companies,  scarcely  thirty  men  were  left  alis'e. 
Captain  Peyronney  and  all  his  officers,  down  to  a  corporal, 
were  killed ;  of  Poison's,  whose  courage  was  honored  by  the 
legislature  of  the  Old  Dominion,  only  one  officer  was  left. 
But  "those  they  call  regulars,  having  wasted  their  ammuni- 
tion, broke  and  ran,  as  sheep  before  hounds,  leaving  the  aitil- 
lery,  pro^'isions,  baggage,  and  even  the  private  papers  of  the 
general,  a  prey  to  the  enemy.  The  attempt  to  rally  them  was 
as  vain  as  to  attempt  to  stop  *.he  wild  beara  of  the  momitain." 
Of  privates,  seven  hundi'ed  and  fourteen  were  killed  or  wound- 
ed, while  of  the  Fi'nch  and  Indians,  only  three  officers  and 
thirty  ;nf>n  fell,  and  but  as  many  more  were  wounded. 

JJraddock  had  five  horses  disabled  under  him;  at  last  a 
bullet  entered  his  right  side,  and  ho  fell  mortally  woimded. 
He  was  with  difficulty  brought  oft"  the  field,  and  borne  in 
the  train  of  the  fugitives ;  the  meeting  at  Dunbar's  camp  made 
a  day  of  confusion.  On  the  twelfth  of  July,  Dunbar  destroyed 
the  remaining  artillery,  and  bunied  the  public  stores  and  the 
heavy  baggage,  to  the  value  of  a  hundred  thousand  pounds, 
pretending  that  he  had  the  orders  of  the  dying  general,  and 
being  himself  resolved,  in  midsummer,  to  evacuate  Fort  Cum- 
berland, and  hurry  to  Philadelpliia  for  winter  quarters.  Ac- 
cordingly, tl;e  next  day  they  all  retreated.  At  night,  Braddock 
roused  from  his  lethargy  to  say  :  "  We  shall  better  know  how 
to  deal  with  them  another  time ; "  and  died.  His  grave  may 
still  be  seen,  near  the  national  road,  about  a  mile  west  of  Fort 
Necessity. 

The  forest  battle-field  was  left  thickly  strewn  with  ihe 
wounded  and  the  dead.  Never  had  there  been  such  a  harvest 
of  scalps  and  spoils.  As  evening  approached,  the  woods  round 
Fort  Duquesne  rung  with  the  halloos  of  the  red  men,  the  fir- 
ing of  sjnall  arms,  mingled  with  a  ])eal  from  the  cannon  at  the 
fort.  The  next  day  the  Bntish  artillery  was  brougiit  in ;  and 
the  Indian  Avarriors,  painting  their  skin  a  shining  venniliou, 
with  patches  of  black  and  brown  and  blue,  tricked  themselves 


f;  W'  ffjj 


sp.  I. ;  cii,  VIII. 


1755. 


BRADDOCK'S  DEFEAT. 


425 


11 . 


out  in  the  laced  liats  and  briglit  apparel  of  the  English  officers 
"This  whole  transaction,"  writes  Franklin,  "gave  us  Ameri- 
cans the  first  suspicion  that  our  exalted  ideas  of  the  prowess  of 
Britisli  regular  troops  had  not  been  well  founded." 

The  news  of  Braddock's  defeat  and  the  shameful  evacna- 
tion  of  Fort  Cumberland  threw  tlie  central  provinces  into  tlie 
greatest  consternation.    The  assembly  of  Pennsylvania  resolved 
to  grant  fifty  thousand  pounds  to  the  king's  use,  in  part  by  a 
tax  on  all  estates,  real  and  personal,  within  the  province     J\for. 
ris,  the  governoT-    ol)eying  the   orders   of  the   proprietaries 
claimed  exempti.m  for  their  estates.     The  assem])ly  reiected 
the  demand  with  disdain;  for  the  annual  income  of  the  pro- 
prietaries from  quit-rents,  ground-rents,  rents  of  manors,  and 
other  appropriP^pd  and  settled  lands,  was  nearly  thirty  thousand 
pounds.    Sharpe  would  not  convene  the  assemljiy  of  THaiyland 
because  it  was  "fond  of  imitating  the  precedents  of  Pennsyl! 
vama."     And  the  governors,  proprietary  as  well  as  royal,  reci  p- 
rocally  assured  each  other  that  nothing  could  be  done  in  their 
colonics  without  an  act  of  pariiament. 

Happily,  the  Catawbas  at  the  south  remained  faithful ;  and 
in  July,  at  a  council  of  five  hundred  Cherokees  assembled  un- 
der a  tree  in  the  highlands  of  western  Carolina,  Glen  renewed 
the  covenant  of  peace,  obtained  a  cession  of  lands,  and  was  in- 
vited to  erect  Fort  Prince  George  near  tlic  villages  of  Conasat- 
chee  and  Keowee. 

At  the  north,  New  England  was  extending  British  domin- 
ion.    Massachusetts  cheerfully  levied  about  seven  tliousand 
mne  liundred  men,  or  nearly  one  fifth  of  the  able-l)odied  men 
ni  the  colony.     Of  these,  a  detachment  took  part  in  est'il)lisli- 
ing  the  sovereignty  of  England  in  Acadia.     That  peninsula 
-abounding  in  harbors  and  in  forests,  rich  in  its  ocean  fish- 
eries and  in  the  product  of  its  rivers,  near  to  a  regi(^n  that 
invited  to  the  chase  and  the  fur  trade,  having  in  its  interior 
large  tracts  of  alluvial  soil— had  become  dear  to  its  inhabitants, 
who  beheld  around  them  the  graves  of  their  ancestors  for  sev- 
eral generations.     It  was  the  oldest  French  colony  in  North 
America.    There  the  Bretons  had  built  their  dwellings,  sixteen 
years  before  the  pilgrims  reached  the  shores  of  New  England. 
With  the  progress  of  the  respective  settlements,  sectioiuU  jeal- 


\l 

.'  :■: 

7' 

'i 

'  .l 

f  1 

'  - 1 

1  1  ,■ 

> 

u 

i  ^k 


I  ii 


10, 


IK 


im 


426    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  viii. 

ousies  and  religious  bigotry  had  renewed  their  warfare ;  the 
offspring  of  the  Massaehusutts  husbandmen  were  tauglit  to 
abhor  "  popish  cruelties  "  and  "  popish  superstitious ; "  while 
Roman  CathoUc  missionaries  were  propagating  their  faith 
among  the  villages  of  the  Abenakis. 

After  repeated  conrpiest  and  restorations,  the  treaty  of 
Utrecht  conceded  Acadia,  or  Nova  Scotia,  to  Great  Britain. 
Yet  the  name  of  Amiapolis,  a  feeble  English  garrison,  and 
five  or  six  innnigrant  families,  were  nearly  all  that  marked 
the  supremacy  of  England.  The  old  inhabitants  remained  on 
the  soil.  They  still  loved  the  language  and  the  usages  of  their 
forefathers,  and  their  religion  was  graven  upon  their  souls. 
They  promised  submission  to  England  ;  but  such  was  the  love 
with  which  France  had  inspu-ed  them,  they  would  not  light 
against  its  standard  or  renounce  its  name.  Thong]  i  concpiered, 
they  were  French  neutrals. 

For  nearly  forty  years  from  the  peace  of  Utrecht  they  had 
been  forgotten  or  neglected,  and  had  prospered  in  tbeir  seclu- 
sion. No  tax-gatherer  counted  their  folds,  no  magistrate  dwelt 
in  their  hamlets.  The  parish  priest  made  their  records  and 
regulated  tlieir  successions.  Their  little  disputes  were  settled 
among  themselves,  with  scarcely  one  appeal  to  English  author- 
ity at  Aimapolis.  The  pastures  were  covered  with  their  herds 
and  flocks ;  and  dikes,  raised  by  extraordinary  efforts  of  social 
industry,  shut  out  the  rivers  and  the  tide  from  alluvial  marshes 
of  exuberant  fertility.  The  meadows,  thus  reclaimed,  were 
covered  by  grasses,  or  fields  of  wheat.  Their  Isouses  were  built 
in  cluijters,  neatly  constructed  and  comfortably  furnished ;  and 
around  them  all  kinds  of  domestic  fowls  abounded.  "With  the 
spinning-wheel  and  ihe  loom,  their  wom^n  made,  of  flax  from 
then-  own  fields,  of  fleeces  from  their  OAvn  flocks,  coarse  but 
sufficient  elothiiig.  The  few  foreign  luxuries  that  were  coveted 
could  be  obtained  from  Annapolis  or  Louisburg,  in  return  for 
fm-s  or  wheat  or  cattle. 

Happy  in  tlieii-  neutrality,  the  Acadians  formed,  as  it  were, 
one  great  family.  Their  morals  were  of  unaffected  purity; 
the  custom  of  early  marriages  was  universal.  The  neighbors 
of  the  comnmnity  would  assist  the  nvw  couple  to  raise  their 
cottture  on  fertile  land,  which  the  wilderness  freelv  offered. 


p.  I. ;  on.  Tin. 


1755. 


ACADIA. 


427 


Their  numbers  increased,  and  tlie  colony,  wliicli  had  be^n  as 
the  trading  station  of  a  company,  with  a  monopoly  of  the  fur 
trade,^  counted,  perhaps,  sixteen  thousand  inhabitants. 

When  England  began  vigorously  to  colonize  Nova  Scotia, 
tlie  native  inhabitants  might  fear  the  loss  of  their  independence! 
The  enthusiasm  of  their  priests  was  kindled  at  the  thought 
that  heretics,  of  a  land  which  had  disfranchised  Catholics,  were 
to  ^surround,  and  perhaps  to  overwhelm,  the  ancient  Acadians. 
"Better,"  said  the  priests,  "  surrender  your  meadows  to  the  sea 
and  your  houses  to  the  flames,  than,  at  the  peril  of  yom-  souls, 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  British  government."  And 
they,  from  their  anxious  sincerity,  Avere  uncertain  in  their  re- 
solves ;  now  gathering  courage  to  flee  beyond  the  i.thnms  for 
other  homes  in  Xew  France,  and  now  yearning  for  their  own 
houses  and  fields,  their  herds  and  pastures. 

The  haughtiness  of  the  British  officers  aided  the  priests  in 
tlieir  attempts  to  foment  disaffection.     The  English  regarded 
colonies,  even  when  settled  by  men  from  their  o\vn  land,  only 
as  sources  of  emolument  to  the  mother  country ;  colonists  as 
an  inferior  caste.     The  Acadians  were  despised  because  they 
were  helpless.     Ignorant  of  the  laws  of  tlieir  conquerors,  they 
were  not  educated  to  the  knowledge,  the  defence,  and  the  love 
of  English  liberties ;  they  knew  not  the  way  to  the  throne,  and, 
given  up  to  military  masters,  had  no  redress  in  civil  tribunals.' 
Their  papers  and  records,  the  titles  to  their  estates  and  inheri- 
tances, were  taken  away  from  them.     Was  their  property  de- 
manded for  the  public  service,  "  they  were  not  to  be  bargained 
with  for  the  payment."     The  words  may  still  be  read  on  the 
council  i-ecords  at  Halifax.    They  must  comply,  it  was  written, 
without  making  any  terms,  "  immediately,"  or  "  the  next  cou- 
rier would  bring  an  order  for  military  execution  upon  the  de- 
liiKluents ; "  and,  when  they  delayed  in  fetching  firewood  for 
their  oppressors,  it  was  told  them  from  the  governor:  ''If 
tluy  do  not  do  it  in  proper  time,  the  soldiers  shall  absolul-iv 
take  their  houses  for  fuel."     The  unoffending  sufferers  sab- 
mitted  meekly  to  the  tyranny.     Under  pretence  of  fearing  that 
tluy  might  rise  in  behalf  of  France,  or  seek  shelter  in  Canada, 
or  convey  provisions  to  the  French  garrisons,  they  were  di- 
rected to  surrender  their  boats  and  their  tire-tu-ms ;  and,  con- 


v-^ 

^fr 

\ 

i 

! 

j           i 

i  '^ 

'  .* 

i  • 

i? 

i 

i 

'i 

iiij 

1 

:1 

1 

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! 

^-      M 


'4J  '* 


("■■«; 


\'t 


428     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  viii. 

scions  of  innocence,  tlioy  gave  tliera  up,  leaving  themselves 
without  the  means  of  flight,  and  defenceless.  Further  orders 
were  afterward  given  to  the  English  oflicers,  if  the  Acadians 
behaved  amiss,  to  punish  them  at  discretion;  if  the  troops 
were  aimoyed,  to  inflict  vengeance  on  the  nearest,  whetlie.-  the 
guilty  one  or  not,  "  taking  an  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a 
tooth." 

The  French,  who  had  yielded  the  sovereignty  over  no  more 
than  the  peninsula,  established  themselves  on  the  isthmus,  in 
two  forts :  one,  a  stockade  at  the  mouth  of  the  little  river  Gas- 
pereanx,  near  Bay  Verte ;  the  other,  the  more  consideraljle 
fortress  of  Beau  Sejour,  built  and  su])plicd  at  great  expense, 
upon  an  eminence  on  the  north  side  of  the  Messagouche,  on 
the  Bay  of  Fundy.  The  isthmus  is  here  hardly  fifteen  miles 
wide,  a.  d  formed  the  natm-al  boundary  between  New  France 
and  Acadia. 

The  French  at  Beau  Sejour  had  passed  the  previous  winter 
in  unsuspecting  tranquillity,  ignorant  of  the  preparations  of  the 
two  crowns  for  war.  As  spring  approached,  suspicions  were 
aroused ;  but  Yergor,  the  ineflicient  commander,  took  no  vigor- 
ous measures  for  strengthening  his  works ;  nor  was  he  fully 
roused  to  his  danger  till,  from  the  walls  of  his  fort,  he  beheld 
the  fleet  of  the  English  sailing  fearlessly  into  the  bay,  and  an- 
choring before  his  eyes. 

The  provincial  troops,  about  fifteen  hundred  in  number, 
strengthened  by  a  detachment  of  three  hundred  regulars  and  a 
train  of  iirtillery,  were  disembarked  without  difliculty.  A  day 
was  given  to  rei)ose  and  parade ;  on  the  fourth  of  June,  they 
forced  the  passage  of  the  Messagouche,  the  intervening  river. 
No  sally  was  attempted ;  no  earnest  defence  was  undertaken. 
On  the  twelfth,  tlie  fort  at  Beau  Sejour,  weakened  by  fear, 
discord,  and  confusion,  was  invested ;  and  in  four  days  it  sur- 
rendered. By  the  terms  of  the  capitulation,  the  garrison  was 
to  be  sent  to  Louisburg ;  for  the  Acadian  fugitives,  inasmuch 
as  they  had  been  fttrced  into  the  service,  amnesty  was  stijm- 
lated.  The  place*  received  an  English  garrison,  and,  from  the 
brother  of  the  king,  then  the  soul  of  tli.  regency,  was  named 
Cumberland. 

The  petty  fortress  near  the  inver  Ga.^pereaux,  on  Bay  Yerte, 


EP.  I. ;  on.  VIII. 


1755. 


ACADIA. 


429 


a  mere  palisade,  flanked  by  four  block-houses,  without  mound 
or  trenches,  and  tenanted  by  no  more  than  twenty  soldiers, 
though  commanded  by  the  l)rave  Villerai,  could  do  nothing 
hilt  capitulate  on  the  same  terms.  Meantime,  Captain  Ron" 
sailed,  with  three  frigates  and  a  sloop,  to  reduce  the  French 
fort  on  the  St.  John's.  But,  l)efore  he  arrived  there,  the  fort 
and  dwellings  of  the  French  had  been  abandoned  and  l)urned, 
and  he  took  possession  of  a  deserted  country.  Thus  was  the 
region  east  of  the  St.  Croix  annexed  to  England,  with  a  loss  of 
but  twenty  men  killed  and  as  many  more  wounded. 

No  further  resistance  was  to  be  feared.  The  Acadians  cow- 
ered Ijefore  tlieir  masters,  wiUing  to  take  an  oath  of  fealty  to 
England,  refusing  to  pledge  themselves  to  bear  arms  against 
France.  The  English  were  mastere  of  the  sea,  were  undis- 
puted lords  of  the  country,  and  could  exercise  clemency  \\-ith- 
out  apprehension.  Xot  a  whisper  gave  a  warning  of  their 
purpose  till  it  was  ripe  for  execution. 

It  had  been  "  determined  upon,"  after  the  ancient  device 
of  Oriental  despotism,  that  the  French  inhal)itants  of  Acadia 
should  be  carried  away  into  captivity  to  other  parts  of  the 
British  dominions.    "  They  have  laid  aside  all  thought  of  taking 
the  oaths  of  allegiance  voluntarily : "    thus,  in  August  1754^ 
Lawrence,  the  lieutenanr-govemor  of  Nova  Scotia,  had  written 
of  them  to  Lord  Halifax.     "  They  possess  the  best  and  largest 
tract  of  land  in  this  province  ;  if  they  refuse  the  oaths,  it  would 
be  much  better  that  they  were  away."     The  lords  of  trade,  in 
reply,  veiled  their  wishes  under  the  decorous  form  of  sugges- 
tions.^   "By  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,"  said  they  of  tlie  French 
Acadians,  "  their  becoming  subjects  of  Great  Britain  is  made 
an  express  condition  of  tlieir  continuance  after  the  expiration 
of  a  year ;  they  cannot  become  subjects  but  by  taking  the  oaths 
required  of  subjects;    and,  therefore,  it  may  be  a  question 
whether  their  refusal  to  take  such  oaths  will  not  operate  to  in- 
validate their  titles  to  their  lands.     Consult  the  chief  justice 
of  N"ova  Scotia  ujjou  that  point ;  his  opinion  may  serve  as  a 
foundation  for  future  measures." 

France  remem])ered  the  descendants  of  lier  sons  in  the  hour 
of  their  affliction,  and  asked  that  they  might  have  time  to 
ivmove   from  the  peninsula  with  their  effects,  leaving  their 


1 


i.     -.It;    ! 


430     COXQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  : 


on.  Till. 


■     :  f  ■ 


lands  to  the  English ;  but  the  answer  of  the  British  minister 
claimed  them  as  useful  subjects,  and  refused  the  request. 

The  inhabitants  of  Minas  and  the  adjacent  country  i)leaded 
with  the  British  officers  for  the  restitution  of  tlieir  boats  and 
their  guns,  promising  lidelity,  if  they  could  but  i-etain  their 
liberties ;  and  declaring  that  not  the  want  of  arms,  but  their 
conscience,  should  engage  them  not  to  revolt.  "The  memo- 
rial," said  Lawrence  in  council,  "  is  highly  an-ogant,  insidious, 
and  insulting,"  The  memorialists,  at  his  summons,  came  sub- 
missively to  Halifax.  "  You  Avant  your  canoes  for  carrying 
provisions  to  the  enemy,"  said  he  to  them,  though  he  knew  no 
enemy  was  left  in  their  vicinity.  "  Guns  are  no  part  of  your 
goods,"  ho  continued,  "  as  by  the  laws  of  England  all  Eoman 
Catholics  are  restrained  from  having  anns,  and  arc  subject  to 
penalties  if  arms  are  found  in  their  houses.  It  is  not  the  lan- 
guage of  British  subjects  to  talk  of  terms  with  the  crown,  or 
capitulate  about  thc^ir  fidelity  and  allegiance.  What  excuse  can 
you  make  for  treating  this  government  with  such  indignity  as 
to  expound  to  them  the  nature  of  fidelity?  Manifest  your 
obedience  by  immediately  taking  the  oaths  of  allegiance  in  the 
conmion  fonn  before  tlie  council." 

The  deputies  replied  that  they  would  do  as  the  generality 
of  the  inhabitants  should  determine  ;  and  they  merely  entreated 
leave  to  return  home  and  consult  the  body  of  their  people. 

The  next  day  the  uidiappy  men  offered  to  swear  allegiance 
unconditionally ;  but  they  were  told  that,  by  a  clause  in  a  Brit- 
ish statute,  persons  who  have  once  refused  the  oaths  cannot  be 
afterward  permitted  to  take  them,  but  are  to  be  couoidered  as 
popish  recusants ;  and  as  such  they  were  imprisoned. 

The  chief  justice.  Belcher,  on  whose  opinion  hung  the  fate 
of  so  many  hundreds  of  innocent  families,  insisted  that  the 
French  hihabitants  were  to  be  looked  upon  as  confirmed 
"rebels,"  who  had  now  collectively  and  without  exception  be- 
come "  recusants."  Besides,  tliev  still  counted  in  their  vilWes 
"  eight  thousand "  souls,  and  the  English  not  more  than  "three 
thousand ; "  they  stood  in  the  way  of  "  the  progress  of  the  set- 
tlement ; "  "  by  their  non-compliance  with  the  conditions  of 
the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  they  had  forfeited  their  possessions  to 
the  crown  ; "  after  the  departure  "  of  the  fleet  and  troops,  the 


•n^ 


EP.  I. ;  en.  Tin. 


1755. 


AOADIA. 


431 


proymce  would  not  bo  in  a  condition  to  drive  tliem  out " 
"Such  a  junciiro  as  the  pres.  Mt  might  never  occur;"  so  lie 
advised  "ajrainst  receiving  any  of  the  French  inhabitants  to 
take  the  oath,"  and  for  the  removal  of  "all"  of  them  from 
the  ])rovince. 

Tliat  the  cruelty  might  have  no  palliation,  letters  amved 
leaving  no  doubt  that  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy  were 
entirely  in  the  possessioa  of  the  British  ;  and  yet  at  a  council,  at 
which  Yice-Admiral  Boscawen  and  Rear-Admiral  Mostyn  were 
present  by  invitation,  it  was  unanimously  determined  to  send 
the  1-  ren<  h  inhabitants  out  of  the  province  ;  and,  after  mature 
cmisideration,  it  was  further  unanimously  agreed  that,  to  prevent 
their  attempting  to  return  and  molest  the  settlers  that  were  to 
be  set  doAvn  on  their  lands,  it  would  be  most  proper  to  distrib- 
ute them  among  the  several  colonies  on  tlie  continent. 

To  hnnt  them  into  the  net  was  impracticable;  artifice  was 
therefore  resorted  to.  By  a  general  proclamation,  on  one  and 
the  same  day,  the  scarcely  conscious  victims,  "both  old  men 
and  young  men,  as  well  as  all  the  lads  of  ten  years  of  a-e" 
were  peremptorily  ordered  to  assemble  at  their  respective 
pest..  On  tlie  ap])ointed  fifth  of  September  they  obeyed.  At 
Grand  Pre,  for  example,  four  hundred  and  eighteen  unarmed 
men  came  together.  They  were  marched  into  the  church  and 
ifs  avenues  were  closed,  u-hen  Winslow,  the  American  com- 
mander, placed  himself  in  their  centre,  and  spoke : 

"You  are  convened  together  to  manifest  to  you  his  maj- 
e^^ty's  final  resolution  to  the  French  inhabitants  of  this  his 
province.     Your  lauds  and  tenements,  cattle  of  all  kinds,  and 
live  stock  of  all  sorts,  are  forfeited  to  the  crown,  and  you 
yoni-selves  are  to  be  removed  from  this  his  province.     I  am 
through  his  majesty's  goodness,  directed  to  allow  you  liberty 
to  carry  off  your  money  and  household  goods,  as  many  as  you 
CM,  Without  discommoding  the  vessels  you  go  in."    And  he 
then  declared  them  the  king's  prisoners.     Their  wives  and 
lannhes  shared  their  lot ;  their  sons,  five  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  m  number;  their  daughters,  five  hundred  and  seventy- 
^ix ;  ni  the  whole,  women  and  babes  and  old  men  and  children 
a  1  included,  nineteen  hundred  and  twenty-three  souls.     The 
Wow  was  sudden ;  they  had  left  home  but  for  the  morning, 


i   'i 


',.  . 


l 

I 


432    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  en.  vm. 


i  I 


I    II 


•i^  i  1. 


and  tliey  never  wore  to  retnrn.  Their  cattle  were  to  stay  un- 
fed in  the  stalls,  their  tires  to  die  out  on  their  hearths.  They 
had  for  that  iirst  day  even  no  food  for  themselves  or  their 
children. 

The  tenth  of  Septeniher  was  the  day  for  the  eniharkation 
of  a  ])art  of  the  exiles.  They  were  drawn  up  six  deep ;  and 
the  young  men,  one  hundred  and  sixty-one  in  number,  were 
ordered  to  nuu'ch  first  on  board  the  vessel.  They  co\dd  leave 
their  farms  and  cottages,  the  shady  roclcs  on  which  they  had 
reclined,  their  herds,  and  their  garnei-s;  but  nature  yearned 
within  them,  and  they  would  not  be  separated  from  their 
parents.  Yet  of  what  avail  was  the  frenzied  despair  of  the 
miarmed  youth  i  They  had  not  one  weapon ;  the  bayonet 
drove  them  to  obey;  and  they  marched  slowly  and  heavily 
from  the  chapel  to  the  shore,  between  women  and  children, 
who,  kneeling,  prayed  for  blessings  on  their  heads,  they  them- 
selves weeping  and  pi'aying  and  singing  hynuis.  The  senii  rs 
went  next ;  the  wives  and  children  nmst  wait  till  other  trans- 
port vessels  arrive.  The  delay  had  its  horrors.  The  wretched 
people  left  behind  were  kept  together  near  the  sea,  without 
proper  food,  or  raiment,  or  shelter,  till  other  ships  came  to 
take  them  away ;  and  December,  with  its  appalling  cold,  had 
struck  the  shivering,  half -clad,  broken-hearted  sufferers,  before 
the  last  of  them  were  removed.  "The  cml)arkation  of  the 
inhabitants  goes  on  but  slowly,"  wrote  Monckton,  from  Fort 
Cumberland,  neai  which  he  had  burned  three  hamlets;  "the 
most  part  of  the  wives  of  the  men  we  have  prisoners  are  gone 
off  with  their  children,  in  hopes  I  would  not  send  off  their 
husbands  M'ithout  them."  Their  hope  was  vain.  Near  An- 
napolis, a  hundred  heads  of  families  fled  to  the  woods,  and 
a  party  was  detached  on  the  hunt  to  l)ring  them  in.  ''  Our 
soldiei-s  hate  them,"  wrote  an  officer  on  this  occasion ;  "  and, 
if  they  can  but  tind  a  pretext  to  kill  them,  they  will."  Did  a 
prisoner  seek  to  escape,  he  was  shot  down  by  the  sentinel. 
Yet  some  fled  to  Quel)ec ;  more  than  three  thousand  had  with- 
drawn to  Miramachi  and  the  region  south  of  the  Ristigouchc ; 
some  found  rest  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  John's  and  its  branches ; 
some  found  a  lair  in  their  native  forests ;  some  were  charitably 
sheltered  from  the  Enijrlish  in  the  wiffwams  of  the  savages. 


lii'i 


:p.  I. ;  en.  vm. 


vcs  or  their 


1755. 


ACADIA. 


433 


But  seven  thousand  of  these  haiiished  people  wore  driven  on 
board  sliips,  and  scattered  among  the  English  colonies,  from 
^ew  Hampshire  to  Georgia;  one  thousand  and  twenty  to 
(south  (.Carolina  alone.  They  were  cast  ashore  without  re- 
sources, hating  the  poor-house  as  a  shelter  for  their  oihrninu- 
and  abhorring  the  thought  of  selling  themselves  as  laborers' 
Households,  too,  were  separated;  the  colonial  newspapers  con- 
tamed  advertisements  of  members  of  families  seeking  their 
compamons,  of  sons  anxious  to  reach  and  reUeve  their  ])arent8 
of  mothers  moaning  for  their  children.  ' 

The  wanderers  sighed  for  their  native  country;  but   to 
prevent  their  return,  their  villages,  from  Annapolis  to  the 
isthnnis,  were  laid  waste.     Their  old  homes  were  but  ruins 
In  the  district  of  Minas,  for  instance,  two  hundred  and  fifty 
of  then-  houses,  and  niore  than  as  many  barns,  were  consumed 
The  live  stock  which  belonged  to  them,  consisting  of  -reat 
munl)ers  of  horned  cattle,  hogs,  sheep,  and  horses,  were  seized 
as  spods  and  disposed  of  by  the  English  officials.     A  beauti- 
ful and  fertile  tract  of  country  was  reduced  to  a  solitude 
Tliere  was  none  left  round  the  ashes  of  the  cottages  of  the 
Acadians  but  tlie  faithful  watch-dog,  vainly  seeking^tlie  hands 
that  fed  him.     Thickets  of  forest-trees  choked  tlieir  orchards  • 
the  ocean  broke  over  their  neglected  dikes,  and  desolated  their 
meadows. 

Relentless  misfortune  pursued  the  exiles  wherever  they 
tied.     Those  sent  to  Georgia,  drawn  by  a  love  for  the  spot 
where  they  were  born,  a.s  strong  as  that  of  the  captive  Jews 
wlio  wept  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon  for  their  o\vn  temple  and 
laud,  escaped  to  sea  in  boats,  and  went  coasting  from  harbor 
to  luirbor;  but  when  they  had  reached  New  England,  just  as 
tiioy  would  have  set  sail  for  their  native  lields,  they  were 
stopped  by  orders  from  Nova  Scotia.     Those  who  dwelt  on 
the  St.  John's  were  torn  from  their  new  homes.    When  Can- 
ada surrendered,  hatred  with  its  worst  venom  pm-sued  the  fif- 
teen hundred  wlio  remained  south  of  the  Eistigouche.     Once 
those  who  dwelt  in  Pennsylvania  presented  a  humble  petition 
to  the  earl  of  Loudoun,  then  the  British  commander-in-chief 
in  America;    and  the   cold-hearted  peer,  offended   that  the 
pi'ayer  was  made  in  French,  seized  their  live  principal  men, 
VOL.  II. — 28 


W  Wi 


11' 


"H  i 


',  V 


It  ■  r. 


SMrf 


4U    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kv.  i.  ;  cii.  v 


tii. 


who  ill  tlicir  own  huid  liad  lu'cii  |H'rson«  of  di^jjiiity  and  sub- 
sfcince,  and  shipped  tlioni  to  England,  witli  the  rotpicst  that 
they  niij^iflit  l)e  ki'pt  from  cvor  a^ain  l)oconun<jj  tronble.sonic  by 
boinjj;  consigned  to  survioe  as  eonunon  sailors  on  board  ships- 
of-war.  No  donbt  existed  of  the  kinj^^'s  approbation.  The 
lords  of  trade,  more  merciless  than  tlu;  savages  and  than  the 
wilderness  in  winter,  wished  very  innch  that  every  one  of  the 
Aeadians  shonld  be  driven  out;  and,  when  it  seemed  that  the 
work  wax  done,  congratulated  the  king  that  "the  zealous  en- 
deavors of  Lawrenee  had  been  crowned  with  an  entire  succesa" 
""We  did,"  said  Ednnnid  l^iirki",  "in  my  opinion,  most  inhu- 
manly, and  u[)oii  pretences  that,  in  the  eye  of  an  honest  man, 
are  not  worth  a  farthing,  root  out  tliis  poor,  innocent,  deserv- 
ing ])cople,  whom  our  utter  inability  to  govern,  or  to  reconcile, 
gjive  us  Tio  sort  of  right  to  extirpate."  I  know  not  if  the 
annals  of  the  human  race  keep  the  record  of  sorrows  so  wan- 
tonly inilicti'd,  so  bitter,  ami  so  lasting,  as  fell  upon  the  French 
inhabitants  of  Acadia.  "AVe  have  been  true,"  they  said  of 
themselves,  "  to  our  religion,  and  true  to  ourselves ;  yet  nature 
appears  to  consider  ns  oidy  as  the  objects  of  public  vengeance." 
Tlie  hand  of  the  English  official  seemed  under  a  spell  \nth 
regard  to  them,  and  Wiis  never  uplifted  but  to  curse  them. 


Kr.  I. ;  on.  vm. 


1755.  AMUUIOA   DNITKU  JJV   .MILITAUY  UULE. 


435 


ml 


CIIAPTETl  IX. 

OREAT    ..UITArx    HXITICH    AMKUICA    UNDKK   mU'VAUY    UULK.     NFW- 
OASTLKS    ADJUNISTItATION    CONTmirKI). 

1755-175G. 

WniLK  tl.o  Hrifish  interpretation  of  tlio  bonndaricH  of 
Acudui  was  made  good  l,y  occupation,  the  troops  iur  the  cen- 
tral expeditions  had  assemble.!  at  Albany.  The  anny  with 
which  ,  olmsou  was  to  reduce  Crown  Point  consisted  of  Now 
England  nid.tia  chielly  from  Connecticut  and  M.issachusetts, 
with  five  hundred  New  Hampshire  foresters,  amoi.fr  whoin 
was  John  Stark,  then  a  lieutenant.  The  1 'rencli,  on  the  other 
liand,  called  every  able-bodied  man  in  the  district  of  Montreal 
into  active  service  for  the  defence  of  Crown  Point,  so  that 
reapers  had  to  be  sent  up  from  Three  Rivers  and  Quebec  to 
gather  m  the  harvest. 

i^:arly  in  August  1755,  the  New  England  men,  having  for 
then,  major-general  Phinehas  Lyman,  "a  man  of  uncoinmon 
martial  endowments,"   were   finishing   Fort   Edward,  at  the 
portage  between  the  Hudson  and  the  headsprings  of  the  Sorel. 
ioward  the  end  of  August,  the  untrained  forces,  which,  with 
Indians,  amounted  to  thirty-four  hundred  men,  were  led  by 
Wi  ham  Johnson  across  the  portage  of  twelve  miles,  to  the 
southern  shore  of  the  lake,  which  the  French  called  the  lake 
ot  the  Holy  Sacrament.     "I  found,"  said  Johnson,  "a  mere 
wilderness;  never  was  house  or  fort  erected  here  before • » 
an<l,  naming  the  waters  Lake  George,  he  cleared  space  for' a 
canip  of  five  thousand  men.     The  lake  protects  him  on  the 
north ;  Ins  flanks  are  covered  by  a  thick  wood  and  a  swamp. 
nie  tents  of  the  husbandmen  and  mechanics,  who  fomi  his 
summer  army,  arc  spread  on  a  rising  ground ;  but  no  fortilica- 


i  *   it*  i 


«'ii 


f 


i.  i 


i-'A  -hi 


^f^f^pfjlf*^! 


436      CONQUEST  OF  TUE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  cu.  u. 

tionH  arc  raised,  no  eiitronelimont  thrown  up.  On  week  <l:iys, 
tlie  niuii  .saunter  to  and  fro  in  idienL-ss ;  isonic,  Aveary  of  inac- 
tion, are  ready  to  mutiny  and  g(;  lionie.  On  Sunday,  all  col- 
lect in  the  groves  for  public  worwliip;  even  three  hundred 
regularly  eidisted  red  men  Beat  themselves  on  the  hillock,  and 
listen  gravely  to  the  interpretation  of  a  long  sermon.  Mean- 
while, wagon  after  wagon  brought  artillery  and  stores  and 
boats  for  the  troops  that  were  idling  away  the  season.  The 
enemy  was  more  adventurous. 

"  Boldness  wins,"  was  Dicskau's  maxim.  Abandoning  tli') 
well-concerted  plan  of  an  attack  on  Oswego,  Vaudreuil  sent 
him  to  oppose  the  army  of  Johnson.  For  the  defence  of  the 
ci'und)ling  fortress  at  Crown  Point,  seven  hundred  regulars, 
sixteen  hundred  Canadians,  and  seven  hundred  savages  hid 
assembled.  Of  these,  three  hundred  or  more  were  Irofj^nois, 
domiciled  in  Canada.  Dieskan,  taking  \vith  him  six  hundred 
savages,  as  many  Canadians,  and  two  hundred  regular  troops, 
ascended  Lake  Champlain  to  its  head,  designhig  to  go  against 
Furt  Edward.  Tlie  guides  took  a  false  route  ;  and,  as  evening 
of  th(>  fourth  day's  mai'ch  came  on,  the  party  found  itself  on 
tlie  oad  to  Lake  Clcorge.  The  red  men  refused  to  attack  the 
fort,  but  they  agreed  to  go  against  the  army  at  the  lake,  mIucIi 
was  thought  to  have  neither  artillery  nor  defences. 

Late  in  the  night  following  the  seventh  of  September,  it 
was  told  in  the  camp  at  Lake  (leorge  that  Dieskan's  party  was 
on  its  way  to  the  Hudson.  On  the  next  morning,  after  a 
council  of  war,  Ephraim  "Williams,  a  ]\Iassachusetts  colonel, 
who,  in  passing  through  Albany,  had  made  a  bequest  of  his 
estate  by  will  to  found  a  free  school,  was  sent  with  a  thousand 
men  to  relieve  Fort  Edward.  Among  them  was  Israel  Put- 
nam, to  whom,  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven,  the  assend)ly  at  Con- 
necticut had  just  given  the  raidc  of  a  second  lieutenant.  Two 
hundred  wamors  of  the  Six  Nations  were  led  by  Ilendrick, 
the  gray-haired  chieftain,  famed  for  his  clear  voice  and  Hasli- 
ing  eye.  They  marched  with  rash  confidence,  a  little  less  than 
three  miles,  to  a  defile  where  the  French  and  Indians  lay  in 
wait  for  them.  Before  the  American  party  were  entirely 
■wnthin  the  ambush,  the  French  Indians  showed  themselves  to 
the  Mohawks,  Init  without  fin'iiir  on  their  kindred,  leaving  the 


'{[■■P 


rm 


EP.  I. ;  on.  IX. 

1  week  (liys, 
.'iiry  of  inac- 
ulay,  all  col- 
ree  liundrod 
hillock,  aTul 
lion.  JMcan- 
1  stores  and 
icasoii.    Tho 

.ndoniiii;  th') 
udreuil  sent 
feiu'o  of  the 
;'ed  rogidars, 
savages  had 
)ro  Iro(|uois, 
six  hundred 
ifular  troops, 
I)  go  against 
J,  as  evening 
md  itself  on 
to  attack  the 
!  hdce,  \\'hich 

eptendjcr,  it 
l's  party  was 
ling,  after  a 
etts  colonel, 
iquest  of  his 
1  a  thousand 
i  Isi-ael  Put- 
Ill  )lv  at  Con- 
jnant.  Two 
y  Ilcndrick, 
;c  and  Hash- 
:tle  less  than 
idians  lay  m 
'cre  entirely 
lieuiselves  to 
,  leaving  the 


1755. 


AMKUIOA    UNITED  BY   MILITARY  RULE. 


487 


I 


Aheiiakis  and  Canadians  t 


al  }i 


o  riiaho  the  attack.     Ilendriek,  wl 


lo 


c  was  on  liorsehaek,  was  killed  on  the  spot;  Williams  fell; 
ij  .ut  Kathau  Whitiiig,  of  New  Haven,  conducted  tho  retreat  in' 

good  order,  often  rallying  and  turning  to  lire. 

When  the  noise  of  musketry  was  heard,  tw^   .r  tlueo  can- 
non  were  hastily  hrought  ui>  from  the  margin  of  the  lake,  and 
trees  were  felled  for  a  breastwork.     Thuse,  with  tht!  wagons 
and  baggage,  forn«ed  some  protisction  to  the  New  EiiirTand 
militia,  whose  arms  were  but  their  fowling-pieces,  without  a 
bayonet  among  them  ull.     It  liad  been  Dieskau's  puqiose  to 
rush  forward  suddenly,  ami  to  enter  the  camp  with  the  fugi- 
tives;  bnt  the  Inxpiois  occupied  a  rising  ground,  and  stood 
inactive.     At  this  the  Abenakis  halted,  and  the  Canadians  fal- 
tered.    Dieskau  advanced  with  the  regular  trooi)s  to  attack 
the  centre,  vainly  hoping  to  be  sustained.     "  Are  these  the  so 
much  vaunted  troops  T'  cried  Dieskau,  bitterly.     Tho  battle, 
of  wliich  tho  conduct  fell  chietly  to  L^niian,  began  ])etween 
eleven  and  twelve ;  Johnscni,  slightly  wounded,  left  the  iield 
at  the  beginning  of  the  action ;  and  for  five  hours  the  New 
England  people,  under  the  command  of  Lyman  and  their  own 
officers,  kept  up  tho  moat  violent  fire  that  had  as  yet  l)een 
known  in  America.     Almost  all  the  French  reguhirs  perished ; 
Saint- Pierre  was  killed ;  Dieskau  was  wounded  thrice,  but  re- 
iimined  on  the  field.     At  last,  as  tho  Americans  drove  the 
French  to  ilight,  he  was  mortally  wounded. 

Of  tho  Americans,  there  fell  on  that  day  about  two  hun- 
dred and  sixteen,  and  ninety-six  ^vere  wounded ;  of  the  Frencli, 
the  h.ss  was  not  much  greater.  Toward  sunset  a  party  of 
three  hundred  French,  who  had  rallied  and  were  retreating  in 
a  body,  at  two  miles  from  the  lake  were  attacked  by  AEac- 
giniies,  of  New  ILimi)shire,  who,  with  two  hundred  men  of 
that  colony,  was  marching  across  the  portage  f  i-om  Fort  Edward. 
Panic-stricken  by  the  well-concerted  movement,  the  enemy 
fled,  leaving  their  baggage;  but  the  victory  cost  the  life  of  the 
brave  ]\[acginne8. 

The  disasters  of  the  year  led  the  English  ministry  to  exalt 
the^  repulse  of  Dieskau.  The  house  of  lords,  in  an  address, 
jiraised  the  colonists  as  "bravo  and  faithful."  Johnson  be- 
came  a   baronet,   and   received  a  gratuity  of  five  thousand 


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i38       CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  ix. 

pounds;  but  the  victory  v^as  due  to  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
New  England  men,  and  "to  Major-General  Lyman,  the  second 
officer  in  the  army  and  the  first  in  activity  in  the  time  of  the 
engagement."  "  Our  all,"  they  cried,  "  do}  ends  on  the  suc- 
cess of  this  expedition."  "  Come,"  wrote  Pomoroy,  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, to  his  friends  at  home,  "  come  to  the  help  of  the 
Lord  against  th^  mighty ;  you  that  value  our  holy  religion  and 
our  liberties  will  spare  nothing,  even  to  the  one  half  of  your 
estate."  And  in  all  the  villages  ''  the  jn-ayers  of  God's  peo- 
ple "  went  up,  that  "  they  might  be  crowned  with  victory  to 
the  glory  of  God ; "  for  the  war  ^\•itll  France  seemed  a  war  for 
Protestantism  and  freedom. 

But  Johnson  knew  not  how  to  profit  by  success ;  he  kept 
the  men  all  day  on  their  arms,  and  at  night  "half  of  the  whole 
were  on  guard."  Shirley  and  the  New  England  provinces  and 
his  own  council  of  war  urged  him  to  advance  ;  but  while  the 
ever  active  French  took  post  at  Ticonderoga,  as  Duquesue  had 
ad\'ised,  he  loitered  away  the  autu'nn,  "  expecting  very  shortly 
a  more  fonnidable  attack  with  artillery,"  and  building  Foit 
William  Henry  near  Lake  George.  When  winter  approached, 
he  left  six  hundred  men  as  a  garrison,  and  dismissed  the  Ne^, 
England  militia. 

Of  the  enterprise  against  western  New  York,  Shirley  as- 
sumed the  conduct.  The  fort  at  Niagara  M-as  but  a  house, 
ahnost  in  ruins,  surrouncl.ed  ]>y  a  small  ditch  and  a  rotten  pah- 
sade  of  seven  or  eight  feet  high.  The  ganlson  was  but  of 
thirty  men,  most  of  them  scarcely  provided  with  nuiskets. 
There  Shirley,  with  two  thousand  men,  was  to  ha.e  welcomed 
the  victor  of  the  Ohio.  But  the  news  of  Braddock's  defeat 
disheartened  them.  On  the  twenty-first  of  August,  Shirlev 
reached  Oswego.  Weeks  passed  in  building  boats;  on  the 
cighteentli  ui  September,  six  hundred  men  Avere  to  embark  on 
Lake  Ontiirio,  when  a  storm  prevented  ;  afterward  head  winds 
raged ;  then  a  tempest ;  then  sickness :  then  tlie  Indians  de- 
serted ;  and  then  the  season  was  too  late  for  action.  So,  on 
the  twenty-fourth  of  October,  having  constiViCted  and  garri- 
soned a  new  fort,  at  Oswego,  Shirley,  with  these  many  excuses, 
withdrew. 

At  this  time,  a  pa])er  by  Franklhi,  jmblished  in  Boston  and 


1756.  AMERICA   UNITED  BY  MILITARY  RULE.  439 

reprinted  in  London,  ]iad  drawn  the  attention  of  all  obsei-vers 
to  the  rapid  increase  of  the  population  in  the  colcnies.    "  Upon 
the  best  inqniry  I  can  make,"  wrote  Shirley,  "  I  have  found 
he  calculations  right.    The  number  of  the  inhabitantH  in  doul,- 
ed  every  twenty  years;"  and  the  dem.nd  for  British  manu- 
lactures,  ^^■lth  a  corresponding  employment  of  shippiug    in- 
creased with  even  greater  rapidity.     "Apprehensions,"  added 
hhirley,  "have  been  enteit.ined  that  they  will  in  time  unite  t(, 
throw  off  their  depende.-    upon  their  mother  countiy,  and 
set  up  one  general  government  among  themselves.     JJnt  if  it 
IS  considered  how  different  the  present  constitutions  of'thoir 
respective  governments  are  from  each  other,  how  much  the 
interests  of  some  of  them  clash,  and  how  opposed  their  tempers 
are,  such  a  coalition  among  them  will  seem  highly  imj,robable 
At  all  events,  they  could  not  maintain  such  an  independency 
without  a  strong  naval  force,  which  it  must  forever  be  in  tlie 
power  of  Great  Britain  to  hinder  them  from  having.     And 
while  his  m:^,esty  hath  seven  thousand  troops  kept  up  within 
them,  with  the  Indians  a^  command,  it  seems  easv,  provided 
las  governors  and  princi]xu  officers  are  independeni;  of  the  as- 
sembhes  for  their  subsistence  and  commonly  vigilant,  to  Dre- 
vent  any  step  of  that  kind  from  being  taken." 

The  topic  which  Shirley  discussed  with  the  ministry  en- 
gaged the  tnoughts  of  the  Americans.     At  Worcester,  a  thriv- 
ing village  of  a  little  more  tlian  a  thousand  ])eople,  the  inter- 
ests of  nations  and  the  horrors  of  war  made  the  subiect  of 
every  conversation.    The  master  <.f  the  town  school,  where  the 
higliest  wages  were  sixty  dollars  for  the  se.sun,  the  son  of  a 
small  freeholder,  a  young  man  of  hardly  twentv,  just  from 
llaiTard  cHlcge,  and  at  that  time  meditating  to  become  a 
l.reacher,  would  sit  and  hear,  and,  escaping  from  a  ma.e  of 
obsei-vat.ous.  would  sometimes  retire,  and,  by  -laying  fhln-s 
together,  form  some  reilections  pleashig"  to  himself      -aIi 
creation,"  he  would  say  in  his  musings,  "is  liable  to  chim,ro; 
nughty  states  are  not  exempted.     Soon  after  the  reformation, 
a  few  pe..plc  came  over  into  this  new  world  for  conscience' 
''ake.     ihis  apparently  trivial  incident  mav  transfer  the  ..'reat 
seat  of  enipin.  into  America.     If  we  can  remove  the  turbulent 
^'allies,  our  j^eople,  according  to  the  exactest  calculations,  will, 


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440       CONQUEST  OF  IDE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  ix. 

in  anotlicr  century,  liecome  more  numerous  than  England  it- 
self. AH  Europe  will  not  be  able  to  subdue  us.  The  only 
way  to  keep  us  from  setting  up  for  ourselves  is  to  disunite  us." 
Such  were  the  dreams  of  John  Adams,  while  ''  i)inched  and 
starved"  as  the  teacher  of  a  "stingy"  New  England  free 
school.  Within  twenty-one  years,  he  shall  assist  in  declarino- 
his  country's  independence ;  in  less  than  thirty,  he  shall  stand 
before  the  king  of  Great  Britain,  the  acknowledged  envoy  of 
the  free  and  United  States  of  America. 

After  the  captui-e  of  the  Alcide  and  the  Lys  by  Boscawen, 
it  was  considered  what  instructions  should  be  gi/en  to  the 
British  marine.  The  mother  of  George  III.  inveighed  most 
bitterly  "  against  not  pushing  the  French  everywhere ;  the 
parhainent  would  never  bear  the  suffering  the  French  to  bring 
home  their  trade  and  sailors;"  she  wished  Ilnnover  in  the  sea 
as  the  cause  of  all  misfortunes.  Newcastle  suggested  trifles,  to 
delay  a  decision.  "  If  we  are  convinced  it  must  be  war,"  said 
Cumberland,  "  I  have  no  notion  of  not  making  the  most  of  the 
strength  and  opportunity  in  our  hands."  The  earl  of  Gran- 
ville was  against  meddling  with  trade :  "  It  is  vexing  your 
neighbors  for  a  little  muck."  "  I,"  said  Newcastle,  the  prime 
minister,  "think  some  middle  way  may  be  found  out."  lie 
was  asked  what  way.  "  To  be  sure,"  he  replied,  "  liawke  must 
go  out ;  but  he  may  be  ordered  not  to  attack  the  enemy,  unless 
he  thinks  it  worth  while."  He  was  answered,  that  Ilawke 
was  too  wise  to  do  anything  at  all,  which  others,  when  done, 
were  to  pronounce  he  onglit  to  be  hanged  for.  "  What,"  re- 
plied the  duke,  "if  he  had  orders  not  to  fall  upon  the  French, 
unless  they  were  more  in  number  together  than  ten?"  The 
Brest  squadron,  it  was  replied,  is  but  nine.  "  I  mean  that," 
resumed  Newcastle,  "^-of  the  merchant-men  only."  Thus  ho 
proceeded  with  inconceivable  a1)sur(Hty.  Frai.ce  and  England 
were  still  at  peace,  and  their  connneree  was  nmtually  protected 
by  the  sanctity  of  treaties.  Of  a  suddt'ii,  orders  were  issucl  '0 
all  British  vessels  of  Avar  to  take  all  French  vessels,  pri ,  ate  a' 
well  as  pubhc ;  and,  without  warning,  ships  from  the  Fn.iifh 
colonies,  the  ships  carrying  from  Alartini(pie  to  ]\rurseillt;  'he 
rich  products  (.f  plantations  tilled  by  the  slaves  of  .Tesuits,  tli-^ 
tishing-smacks  in  which  the  humble  Breton  mariners  ventured 


"""'k  ,W1|?'T^}' 


1755.  AMERICA  UNITED  BY  MILITARY  RULE. 


441 


e  war,"  said 


to  Newfoundland,  wliaie-sliips  returning  from  their  adventures, 
the  scanty  fortunes  with  whicii  poor  men  freiglited  the  h'ttle 
barks  engaged  in  tlie  coasting  trade,  were  within  one  mouth, 
l)y  violence  and  by  artifices,  seized  by  the  British  marine,  and 
carried  into  English  ports,  to  the  value  of  thirty  millions  of 
livres.  ^  "What  has  taken  pLice,"  wrote  Rouill^,  under  the  eye 
of  Louis  XV.,  "is  nothing  but  a  system  of  piracy  on  a  grand 
scale,  unworthy  of  a  civilized  jjcople."     As  there  had  been  no 
declaration  of  war,  the  British  courts  of  admiralty  could  not 
then  warrant  the  outrage.     The  sum  afterward  paid  into  tlie 
British  exchequer,  as  the  king's  shai-e  of  the  spoils,  was  about 
seven  hundred  thousand  pounds.     Eight  thousand  French  sea- 
men were  held  in  captivity.     "  N'ever,"  said  Louis  XV.,  "  yxiH 
I  forgive  the  piracies  of  this  insolent  nation;"  and,  in  a  letter 
to  George  II.,  he  demanded  ample  reparation  for  the  insult 
to  the  flag  of  France  by  Boscaven,  and  for  the  seizures  by 
English  men-of-war,  committed  in  defiance  of  international 
i'aw,  the  faith  of  treaties,  the  usages  of  civilized  nations,  and 
the  reciprocal  duties  of  kings.     The  wound  tims  inflicted  on 
France  Avould  not  heal,  and  for  a  whole  generation  was  ready 
to  bleed  afresh.    At  the  time,  the  capture  of  so  many  thousand 
French  seamen  was  a  subject  of  boast  in  the  British  parlia- 
ment; and  the  people  were  almost  unanimous  for  M-ar,  in 
which  success  ^v'ould  requii-e  the  united  activity  of  the  colonies 
and  allies  in  Europe. 

The  incompetent  ministr)'  turned  to  Russiu.  "  Seize  the 
o])pori;unity,"  such  was  the  substance  of  their  instnictions  to 
their  boastful  and  credulous  envoy,  "  t)  convince  the  liussians 
tliat  they  will  remain  only  an  Asiatic  power,  if  tlun-  allow  the 
king  of  Prussia  to  carry  through  his  plans  of  aggrandize- 
laent;"  and  full  authority  was  given  to  efl:'oct  an  r-'iance  with 
Russia,  to  overawe  Prussia  and  C(  .trol  thi-  i  olitics  of  Ger- 
many. Yet  at  that  tune  Frederic  mrnifeoted  no  purpose  of 
making  contpiests. 

In  this  manner  a  treaty  M-as  concluded  by  -^luch  England, 
on  the  point  of  incurring  thL'  hostility  of  tliJ  Catholic  ])rinces, 
bound  itself  to  pay  to  Russia  at  least  half  a  million  of  dollai-s 
ammally,  and  contingently  two  and  a  half  million  of  dollars,  in 
order  to  balance  nnd  i)ai'a]yze  the  iuflu.-:.cu  of  the  only  consid- 


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4i2       CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  en.  ix. 

erable  Protestant  moiuircliy  on  the  continent.     The  English 
king  was  so  eagerly  bent  on  this  shameful  negotiation  that 
Bestnchef,  the  Eussian  minister,  obtained  a  gratuity  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  and  one  or  two  othei-s  received  pajanents  in 
cash  and  annuities,     "A  little  increase  of  the  money  to  he 
jxaid,"  said  Bestuchef,  "  would  be  extremely  agreeable.     Fifty 
thousand  pounds  for  the  private  pm-se  of  the  empress  M'ould 
put  her  and  her  court  at  his  majesty's  management."     At  the 
same  time,  an  extravagant  treaty  for  subsidies  was  framed  M'ith 
Ilesse,  ^^•hose  elector  bargained  at  high  rates  for  the  use  of  his 
troops  for  the  defence  of  Hanover,  or,  if  needed,  of  the  Brit- 
ish dominions.     Newcastle  was  sure  of   his  majority  in  the 
house  of  connnons;  but  "William  Pitt,  though  poor,  and  re- 
cently man-ied,  and  holding  the  lucrative  ofhco  of  paymaster, 
declared  his  pm-poso  of  opposing  the  treaty  with  Kussia.    I^ew- 
castle  sent  for  l^itt,  offered  him  kind  words  from  his  sovereign, 
influence,  preferment,  confidence.     Expressing  devotion  to  the 
king,  Pitt  was  inexorable  :  he  would  sui)port  the  Hessian  treaty, 
^^•hich  was  oidy  a  M'astc  of  money,  but  not  a  system  of  treaties 
dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  Germany  and  of  Europe.     New- 
castle grew  nervous  from  fright,  and  did  not  recover  courage 
till,  in  Xovember,  Fox  consent-  .ccept  the  seals  and  defend 

the  treaties.  At  the  great  ''  itr  Pitt  tamited  the  majority, 
whicli  was  as  three  to  one,  ^vu^  jrruption  and  readiness  "to 
follow  their  leader;"  and,  indirectly  attacking  the  subjection 
of  the  throne  to  aristocratic  influence,  declared  that  "  the  kino' 
owes  a  supreme  ser\nce  to  his  people."  Pitt  was  dismissed 
from  (.)flice,  and  George  Grenville  and  Charles  Townshend  re- 
tired with  him. 

The  treaty  with  Russia  was  hardly  continned  when  the 
ministry  yielded  to  the  impulse  given  by  Pitt,  and,  after  sub- 
sidizing Russia  to  ol)tain  the  use  of  lier  troops  agauist  Frederic, 
it  negotiated  an  al]ianc(>  with  Frederic  himself  not  h>  permit 
the  entrance  of  liussiiin  oi-  any  other  foreign  troo[)s  into  Ger- 
many. The  British  aristocracy  Newcastle  sought  to  unite  h_, 
a  distribution  of  pensions  and  places.  This  is  the  moment 
when  Hills] )orough  first  obtained  an  employment,  wlien  tlie 
family  of  Yorke  named  Soame  Jenyns  for  a  lord  of  trade,  and 
when  Bedford  was  propitiated  by  th  j  appointment  uf  Pachard 


1755-1756.   AMERICA  UNITED  BY  MILITARY  RULE.  443 

Rigby,  one  of  liis  followers,  to  a  seat  at  the  same  board.  The 
adinimstration  proceeded,  possessing  the  vote,  but  not  the  re- 
spect of  parliament. 

At  the  head  of  the  American  forces  it  had  placed  Shirley 
a  worn-out  hamster,  who  know  nothing  of  war,  yet,  in  De- 
cember, at  a  congress  of  governors  at  New  York,  planned  a 
campaign  for  the  following  year.     Quebec  was  to  be  menaced 
by  way  of  the  Kennebec  and  the  Chaudi^re;  Frontenac  and 
loronto  and  Niagara  were  to  be  taken;  and  then  I ort  Du- 
quesne  and  Detroit  and  Mackinaw,  deprived  of  their  communi- 
cations ^v^re  of  course,  to  surrender.     Sharpe,  of  Maryland, 
thought  all  effoi-ts  vain  miless  parhament  should  interfere  and 
tbs  qnrnon  he  enforced  in  many  letters.     His  colleagues  and 
the  otticers  of  the  army  were  ecpially  importunate.     '-If  they 
expect  success  at  home,"  wrote  Gage,  in  January  175G,  eclio- 
nig  the  connnon  opinion  of  those  around  him,  "acts  of  i.arlia- 
inent  must  be  made  to  tax  the  provinces  in  proportion  to  what 
each  IS  aljle  to  bear,  to  make  one  common  fund  and  pursue  one 
luutorm  plan  for  America."     -  You,"  said  Sir  Charles  Hardy 
the  new  governor  of  New  York,  to  the  lords  of  trade,  "will 
be  much  mo.v  able  to  settle  it  for  us  than  we  can  ourselves  " 

From  the  Old  Dominion,  Dinwiddle  continued  to  ur-^e  a 
general  land-tax  and  ])oll-tax  for  all  the  colonies.     "  Our  peo- 
ple." said  he.  -^vm  be  inflamed,  if  thev  bear  of  my  makin- 
tins  proposal ; "  but  he  reiterated  the  hopelessne.-^s  of  obtaining 
joint  etibrts  of  the  colonies  by  appeals  to  American  assemblie.? 
lie  urged  also  the  subvei-sion  of  charter  governments  ;  "for  " 
«iid  he  to  the  seeretaiy  of  state,  "I  am  full  of  opiiiion  we 
shall  contimie  in  a  most  disunited  and  distracted  condition  till 
Ins  majesty  takes  the  proprietary  gcn-ernments  into  his  own 
iiands.     Till  these  governments  are  under  his  majestv's  imme- 
diate direction,  all  expeditions  will  prove  unsuccessful.     These 
doniinions,  if  properly  protected,  will  be  the  western  and  best 
cm])iiv  in  the  world." 

_  With  more  elaborateness  and  authoritv,  Shirlev,  still  plead- 
ing for  -  a  general  fund,"  assured  the  ministers  'tliat  the  sev- 
'.;i-iil  assemldies  would  not  agree  among  tbemselves  upon  such  a 
bind;  that,  consequently,  it  must  be  done  in  England,  and 
that  the  only  eifectual  way  of  doing  it  there  would  be  by  an  act 


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444:       CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    f.p.  i.;  en.  ix. 

of  parliament,  in  wliicli  lio  jirofcssed  to  liavo  groat  roason  to 
think  tiie  j)L'oi)le  would  readily  actiniesee.  The  snccess  of  any 
other  nieasnre  wonld  bo  doubtful;  and,  suggesting  a  "stamp 
duty"  as  well  ius  an  excise  and  a  poll-tax,  he  advised,  "  for  the 
general  satisfaction  of  the  people  in  each  colony,  to  leave  it  to 
their  choi.^o  to  raise  the  sum  assessed  ujion  them  according  to 
their  own  discretion;"  but  in  case  of  failure,  "  jiroper  otK- 
eers"  were  to  collect  the  revenue  "by  warrants  of  distress  and 
imprisonment  of  persons."  Shirley  was  a  civilian,  versed  in 
English  law,  for  many  years  a  crown  ofKcer  in  the  colonics, 
and  now  having  i>receilence  of  all  the  governors.  His  opinion 
carried  great  M-eight,  and  it  became  hencefoi-ward  a  tirni  per- 
suasion anuuig  the  lords  of  trade,  esi)ecially  Halifax,  Soanic 
Jcnyns,  and  Kigby,  as  well  as  with  all  who  busied  themselves 
with  schemes  of  government  for  America,  that  the  Ih-itish  par- 
liament must  take  upon  itself  the  establishment  and  collection 
of  an  American  revenue. 

Wlule  the  otticers  of  the  crown  were  thus  conspiring 
against  American  liberty,  the  tomahawk  was  uplifted  along 
the  ranges  of  the  Alleghanies.  The  governor  of  Virginia 
pressed  upon  Washington  the  rank  of  colonel  and  the  com- 
mand of  the  volunteer  companies,  which  were  to  guard  its 
frontier  from  Cuml)erland  through  the  whole  valley  of  tlic 
Shenandoah.  Ditliculties  of  all  kinds  gatJiered  in  his  path: 
the  humi)lest  captain  that  held  a  royal  conunission  claimed  to 
be  his  superior,  and,  for  the  purpose  of  a  personal  a])peal  to 
Shirley,  he  made  a  Avinter's  journey  to  Boston.  IIow  dilferent 
was  to  bo  his  next  entry  into  that  town !  Shii-ley,  who  wished 
to  make  him  second  in  connnaud  in  an  expedition  against  Fort 
Ducpiesne,  sustained  his  claim.  When  his  authority  was  estab- 
lished, his  own  officers  still  needed  training  and  instruction, 
tents,  arms,  and  ammunition.  He  visited  in  person  the  out- 
posts from  the  Potomac  to  Fort  Dinwiddie,  on  Jackson's  river; 
but  had  not  force  enough  to  protect  the  region.  The  low  coun- 
tries could  not  spai-c  their  white  men,  for  these  nmst  watch 
their  negro  slaves.  From  the  western  valley  every  settler  had 
already  been  driven;  from  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah  they 
were  beginning  to  retreat,  in  droves  of  fifties,  till  the  Blue 
Ridge  became  the  frontier  of  Virginia.     "The  supplicating 


1750.  AMEPJCA   UNITED  BY  MILITARY   RULE.  445 

tciirs  of  the  wonicTi  and  moving  petitions  of  the  men,"  wrote 
Washington,  "melt  me  into  such  deadly  soiTow  that,  for  the 
people's  ea.se,  I  could  offer  myself  a  willing  sacrirtce  to  the 
butchering  enemy." 

In  l\"nnsylvania,  measures  of  defence  were  impeded  hv 
tlie  proprietaries,  who,  in  concert  \vith  the  hoai'd  ..f  trade 
sought  to  take  into  their  own  hands  the  management  of  the 
revenue  from  excise;  to  restrain  and  regulate  tlie  emissions  of 
])aper  money;  to  make  their  own  will,  rather  than  good  beha- 
vior, the  tenure  of  oIKce.  But  the  asseml.ly  was  intlexihle  in 
connectmg  their  grants  for  the  public  service  with  the  j.reser- 
vation  of  their  executive  iuHuence  and  the  taxation  (jf  "all 
estates,  real  and  personal,  those  of  the  proprietaries  not  ex- 
cc])ted." 

AVhile  these  passionate  disputes  were  raging,  it  was  repre- 
sented in  England  that  the  frontier  of  the  i.rovince  was  deso- 
late and  defenceless ;  that  the  Slia\niees  had  scaled  the  moun- 
tains, and  prowled  with  horrible  ferocitv  along  the  branches  of 
the  Susquehannah  and  the  Delaware;  that,  in  the  time  of  a 
yearly  meeting  of  (Quakers,  the  bodies  of  a  (ierman  family, 
mur<lered  and  mangled  by  the  savages,  had  been  brought  dowi! 
hJ  riiiladelphia;  that  men  had  even  surrounded  the  assemblv, 
demanding  protection,  which  Avas  withheld. 

But  provincial  laws  had  already  provided  cpiarters  for  the 
British   soldiers;   had   established   a   voluntary  militia;   and, 
wlien  the  proprietaries  consented  to  pay  live  thousand  pounds 
toward  the   public  defence,  had  granted   iiftv-tive   tliousand 
more.     Franklin,  who  was  one  of  the  eommissionere  to  apiily 
the  money,  yielded  to  the  M-ish  of  the  governor,  and  took  charo-e 
ot  the  north-western  border.    Men  came  readilv  under  his  com- 
mand ;  and  he  led  them,  through  dangerous  defiles,  to  build  a 
fort  at  Gnadenhutten  on  the  Lehigh.     The  Indians  had  made 
the  vdlage  a  scene  of  silence  and  desolation ;  the  man-rlod  in- 
habitants lay  near  the  ashes  of  their  houses  unburied,  ex'posed 
to  birds  and  beasts.     With  Franklin  came  evervthing  that 
could  restore  .security;  and  he  succeeded  in  establishii^  the 
intended  line  of  foits.     Recalled  to  Philadelphia,  he  found 
tliat  the  voluntary  association  for  defence  under  the  militia 
law  went  on  with  great  success.     Almost  all  the  inhal)itants, 


iiii 


i  M  M 


I    ': 


in 


i  \ 


446       CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  ix. 

who  were  not  Quakers,  joined  together  to  form  companies 
which  themselves  elected  their  officers.  The  officers  of  the 
eom])anie8  chose  Franklin  colonel  of  their  regiment  of  twelve 
hundred  men,  and  he  accepted  the  ^losi. 

Here  again  was  a  new  increase  of  popular  power.  In  the 
house  of  commons,  Lord  George  Sackville  (iliarged  the  situa- 
tion of  affairs  in  America  "  on  the  defects  of  the  constitution 
of  the  colonies.''  lh\  would  have  "one  power  established 
there."  "  The  militia  law  of  Pennsylvania,"  he  said,  "  was  de- 
signed to  be  ineffectual ;  it  offered  no  compulsion,  and,  more- 
over, gave  the  nomination  of  ofHcers  to  the  people."  The 
administration  hearkened  to  a  scheme  for  dissolving  the  assem- 
bly of  that  province  by  act  of  pa)-liament,  and  disfranchising 
"  the  Quakers  for  a  limited  time,"  till  laws  for  arnu'd  defence 
and  for  diminishing  the  power  of  the  people  could  be  framed 
by  others. 

After  the  long  councils  of  indecision,  the  ministry  of  New- 
castle, shunning  altercations  with  colonial  assemblies,  gave  a 
military  character  to  the  interference  of  Great  Britain  in  Ameri- 
can affairs.  To  New  York  instructions  were  sent  "not  to 
press  the  establishment  of  a  perpetual  revenue  for  the  present." 
The  northern  colonies,  whose  successes  at  Lake  George  had 
mitigated  the  disgraces  of  the  previous  year,  were  encouraged 
by  a  remuneration ;  and,  as  a  measure  of  temporary  expedi- 
ency, not  of  permanent  policy  or  right,  as  a  gratuity  to  stimu- 
late exertions,  and  not  to  subsidize  subjects,  one  hundred  and 
Hfteen  thousand  pounds  were  granted  to  them  in  i)roportioii  to 
their  efforts.  Of  this  sum,  lifty-four  thousand  pounds  fell  to 
Massachusetts,  twenty-six  thousand  to  Connecticut,  iif  teen  thou- 
sand to  New  York.  For  the  further  coiuluct  of  the  war  and 
regulation  of  colonial  governments,  opinions  and  jn-eeedents  as 
old  as  the  reign  of  William  III.  were  recalled  to  mind. 

The  board  of  trade  had  hardly  been  constituted  before  it 
was  summoned  to  devise  unity  in  the  military  efforts  of  the 
provinces.  In  1721,  this  method  of  governing  by  a  military 
dictatorship  had  ])een  revived,  and  most  elaborately  (ievelopod.* 
The  plan  was  now  to  be  partially  carried  into  vffect.  On  the 
instance  of  Cumberland  and  Fox,  Shirley  was  surerseded  and 

*  See  above,  pp.  7i  and  21i;,  -JIT- 


1756.  AMERICA  UNITED  BY  MILITAIJY  RULE.  447 

oi-dered  to  return  to  England ;  and  the  carl  of  Loudoun,  a 
friend  of  Halifax,  passionately  zealous  for  the  suborduiation 
and  inferiority  of  the  colonies,  utterly  wanting  in  the  qualities 
ot  a  military  otHcer  or  of  a  statesnum,  or  a  man  in  any  sort 
of  business,  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  amy 
throughout  the  British  continental  provinces  in  America.     His 
dignity  was  enhanced  by  a  commission  ^  g.)veruor  of  the  cen- 
tral, ancient,  and  populous  dominion  of  Virginia.     This  com- 
mission, which  was   prepared  by  the  chancellor  Hardwicke 
established  a  power  throughout  the  continent,  independent  of 
the  colonial  governors  and  superior  to  them.     They,  in  rhdit 
of  their  office,  might  claim  to  be  the  civil  and  military  repre- 
sentatives of  the  king,  though  they  could  not  give  the  word 
within  their  own  respective  provinces,  except  in  the  absence 
otthc  continental   commander  and  his  representatives;  and 
this  commission,  so  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  British  con 
stitution,  was  renewed  successively  and  without  chano-e  till  the 
period  of  independence.      With  these  p.jwers  Loudoun  was 
sent  forth  to  unite  America  by  military  rule,  to  swav  its  mag- 
istrates by  his  authority,  and  to  make  its  assemblies  '' distinctfy 
and  precisely  understand"  that  the  king  "re<piired"  of  them 
;' a  general  fund,  to  be  issued  and  applied  as  the  commander- 
in-chief  should  direct,"  and  to  provide  -  for  all  such  charges 
as  might  arise  from  furnishing  quarters." 

The  administration  was  confirmed  in  its  purpose  by  the  au- 
thority of  Mmniy.     The  legislature  of  Peimsvlvania,  adopting 
tlie  act  of  the  I5ritish  parliament  to  pimish  mutiny,  had  recm- 
kted  the  providing  of  quarters.     Murrav,  iu  rep,jrting  against 
the  colonial  statute,  drew  a  distinction  between   En'-dishmen 
and  Americans,  saying :  "  The  law  assumes  propositioifs  tnie  in 
the  motlier  country,  and  rightly  asserted  in  the  reign  of  Charles 
L  and  Charles  IL,  in  times  of  peace,  and  when  soldiers  were 
kept  up  without  the  consent  of  parliament;  but  the  applica- 
tion of  such  positions,  in  time  of  war,  iu  case  of  troops  raised 
tor  protection  by  the  authority  of  parliament— made  the  first 
tune  by  an  assembly,  many  <.f  whom  plead  what  they  call  con- 
science tor  not  jcining  in  tiie  military  operations  to  resist  the 
oncmy— .hMuld  not  be  allowed   to  stand  as  law."     This  act, 
therefore,  was  repealed  by  the  king  iu  council ;  and  the  rule 


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448      CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA.   ei'.  i. ;  en.  is. 

was  cstablisliod,  without  limitation,  that  troops  might  be  kept 
up  in  tho  colonies  and  qnartorod  on  them  at  pleasure,  without 
the  consent  of  their  American  pai'Iiaments. 

After  sixty  years  of  advice  from  tlie  l)oard  of  trade,  a  per- 
mant'iit  army  was  established  in  America ;  nothing  seei.ied 
wanting  but  an  American  revenue  by  acts  of  parliament. 
The  obstinacy  of  Pennsylvania  was  pleaded  as  recpiiring  it. 
On  the  questions  affecting  that  province,  the  board  of  trade  lis- 
tened to  Charles  Yorke  on  the  side  of  prerogative,  wjiile 
Charles  Pratt  si)ok(!  for  colonial  liberty  ;  and,  after  a  long  hear- 
ing, Halifax,  and  8oame  Jenyiis,  and  IJiehai'd  Kigby,  and  Tal- 
bot joined  in  advising  an  immediate  act  of  the  Jiritish  legisla- 
ture to  overnde  the  charter  of  the  province.  But  the  ministry 
was  rent  by  factions,  and  their  fluctuating  tenure  of  office  made 
it  ditlicult  to  mature  novel  or  daring  measures  of  legislation. 
There  existed  no  central  will  strong  enough  to  conquer  Canada 
or  subvert  the  liberties  of  America. 

A  majority  of  the  treasury  board,  as  well  as  the  l)oard  of 
trade,  favored  American  taxation  by  act  of  parliament ;  none 
scrupled  as  to  the  po\\'cr ;  but  the  execution  of  the  purpose 
was  deferred  to  a  quieter  period. 

Still,  parliament,  in  the  session  of  1750,  exerted  its  author- 
ity signally  over  America.  There  foreign  Protestants  might 
be  employed  as  engineers  and  officers  to  enlist  a  regiment  of 
aliens.  Indented  servants  might  be  accepted,  and  their  masters 
■were  referred  for  compensation  to  the  res])ective  assemblies ; 
and  tlie  naval  code  of  England  was  extended  to  all  persons  em- 
ployed in  the  king's  service  on  the  lakes,  great  Avaters,  or  riv- 
ers of  Xorth  America.  The  militia  law  of  Pennsylvania  was 
re])ealed  by  the  king  in  conned ;  the  conunissions  of  all  officers 
elected  under  it  were  cancelled ;  the  companies  themselves 
were  broken  up  and  dispei*sed.  And,  while  volunteers  were 
not  allowed  to  organize  themselves  for  defence,  the  huml)le 
intei-cession  of  the  Quakers  with  the  tribe  of  the  Delawares, 
covenants  resting  on  confidence  and  ratified  by  ])resents,  peace- 
ful stipulations  for  the  security  of  the  frontier  fireside  and  the 
cradle,  were  censured  by  Lord  Halifax  as  the  most  daring  viola- 
tion of  the  royal  prerogative.  Each  northern  province  was  for- 
bidden to  negotiate  with  the  Indians ;  and  their  relations  were 


'■■^^^'W- 


'.y.  I. ;  cti.  IS. 

;ht  be  kept 
iru,  without 

rado,  a  pur- 
h\y;  st'oi.it'd 
l)arliainL'nt. 
(.'(piiriug  it. 
of  tra(l(>  lis- 
itive,  wliile 
a  long  liour- 
).y,  and  Tal- 
tisli  Ic'gisla- 
lio  iiiinistiy 
offico  made 
legislation, 
[uer  Canada 

lie  l)oard  of 
uent ;  none 
;he  ])urpo«e 

its  antlior- 
ants  might 
regiment  of 
leir  masters 
assemblies ; 
persons  cra- 
ters, or  riv- 
tdvania  was 
t*  all  officers 
themselves 
iteers  were 
he  hnmblc 
Delawares, 
ents,  peacc- 
ide  and  the 
aring  viola- 
ico  was  for- 
ations  were 


175C.  AMERICA   UNITED   BY  MlblTAKY   UULE.  449 

intrusted  to  Sir  William  Johnson,  with  no  eubordiuation  but  to 
Loudoun. 

Yet  all  fears  could  not  be  allayed.  "  In  a  few  years,"  said 
one,  wlio,  after  a  long  settlement  in  J^-ow  England,  'had  iust  re- 
turned home,  the  colonies  of  «  America  will  be  independent  of 
l.ritam  ;  and  at  least  one  voice  was  raised  to  advise  the  send- 
ing ..nt  of  Duke  William  of  Cumberland  to  bo  theii-  sovereiLm 
and  emancipating  them  at  onee. 

William  Smith,  the  sem  republican  historian  of  Kew  York 
insisted  that  '<tho  board  of  trade  cUd  not  know  the  state  of 
America ; "  and  he  urged  a  law  for  an  American  union  with 
an  American  parliament.  ''The  defects  of  the  iirst  plan" 
said  he,  "  will  be  supiilied  by  experience.  The  British  consti- 
tution ought  to  be  the  model ;  and,  from  (.ur  knowledge  of  its 
faults,  the  American  one  may  rise  Mnth  more  health  and  somid- 
iiess  in  Its  tirst  contexture  than  Great  Britain  will  ever  eniov  " 

VOL.  II. — 2!)  *'  '^' 


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Pnotographic 

Sdences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTEM,N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


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450        CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep. 


I. ;  en.  X. 


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CHAPTER  X. 

THE  AEI8T0CRACY   AVITTIOUT    THE    PEOPLE    CA^^XOT   GOVERN   ENG- 
LAND.    Newcastle's  administration  continued. 

1756-1757. 

War  was  not  declared  by  England  till  May  1756,  tliougli 
her  navy  was  all  the  while  despoiling  the  commerce  of  France. 
On  the  avowal  of  hostilities,  she  forbade  neutral  vessels  to 
caiTy  merchandise  Ijelonging  to  her  antagonist.  Frederic  of 
Prussia  had  insisted  that,  "  by  the  law  of  nations,  the  goods  of 
an  enemy  cannot  be  taken  from  on  board  the  ships  of  a  friend ; " 
that  free  ships  make  free  goods.  Against  this  interpretation 
of  public  law,  Murray,  citing  ancient  usage  against  the  lessons 
of  wiser  times,  gave  the  elaborate  opinion  which  formed  the 
basis  of  English  policy  and  admiralty  law,  tliat  the  effecu  of 
an  enemy  can  be  seized  on  board  the  vessel  of  a  friend.  This 
may  ]^e  proved  by  authority,  said  the  illustrious  jurist,  not 
knowing  that  humanity  appeals  from  the  despotic  and  cruel 
precedents  of  the  past  to  the  more  intelligent  and  more  hu- 
mane spirit  of  advancing  civiUzation.  AYar  is  a  trial  of  force, 
not  a  system  of  spoliation.  Neutral  nations  believed  in  their 
right  "  to  caiTy  in  their  vessels,  unmolested,  the  property "  of 
belligerents ;  but  Britain,  to  give  efficacy  to  her  naval  power, 
"  seized  on  the  enemy's  property  which  she  found  on  board 
neutral  ships."  With  the  same  view,  she  arbitrarily  invaded 
the  sovereignty  of  Holland,  capturing  its  vessels  whose  cargoes 
might  be  useful  for  her  navy.  The  treaties  between  Englaud 
and  Holland  stipulated  that  free  ships  should  make  free  goods ; 
that  the  neutral  should  enter  safely  and  unmolested  all  the 
harbors  of  the  belligerents,  unless  they  were  blockaded  or  bo- 
sieged  ;  that  the  contraband  of  war  should  be  strictly  limited 


1750. 


TIIi:   OLD  WHIGS  CANXOT  GOVERN  ENGLAND. 


451 

to  arms,  artillery,  and  horses,  and  should  not  include  materials 
for  slnp-bmldmg.    But  Great  Britain,  in  the  exercise  of  its 
supenor  strength,  prohibited  the  commerce  of  the  J^etherlands 
1.1  naval  stores;  denied  them  the  right  to  become  the  carriers 
oi  Irenchcolomal  products;  and  declared  all  the  harbors  of 
France  ,n  a  state  of  blockade,  and  all  vessels  bound  to  them 
lawful  prizes.     Such  was  the  rule  of  1750.     "  To  charge  En  a-, 
land  with  ambition,"  said  Charles  Jenkinson,  an  Oxford  scholar 
who  had  given  up  the  thought  of  entering  the  church  for 
aspirations  m  pubhc  life,  and  was  afterward  known  as  Lord 
LiyeiiDool  -must  appear  so  absurd  to  all  who  understand  the 
nature  of  her  government,  that  at  the  bar  of  reason  it  ought  to 
be  treated  rather  as  ^alumny  than  accusation." 

April  was  almost  gone  before  Abercrombie,  who  was  to  be 
next  m  command  to  the  eari  of  Loudoun,  with  Webb  and  two 
battahons,  left  Plymouth  for  New  York.    Loudoun  waited  for 
his  transports,  that  were  to  carry  tents,  ammunition,  artillery 
and  mtrenching  tools ;  and  at  last,  near  the  end  of  May,  sailed 
without  them.     The  man-of-war,  which  bore   one   hindred 
housand  pounds  to  reimburse  the  colonies  for  the  expenses  of 
1*00  and  stimulate  their  activity  for  1750,  was  delayed  till 
the  middle  of  June.     The  cannon  for  ships  on  Lake  Ontario 
did  not  reach  America  till  August.     "  We  shall  have  good 
reason  to  smg  Te  Deum  at  the  conclusicn  of  this  campaign," 
wrote  the  heutenant-governor  of  Maryland,  "  if  matters  are 
not  tnen  m  a  worse  situation  than  at  present," 

On  the  fifteenth  of  June,  Abercrombie' am ved.     Letters 
awaited  him  in  praise  of  AYashington.     Shiriey,  while  still 
first  111  command  of  the  army  in  America,  wrote  to  the  gover- 
nor of  Ma.,  .and,  - 1  shall  appoint  C  lonel  Washington  to  the 
second  command  in  the  proposed  exp.^dition  upon  the  Ohio,  if 
there  IS  nothing  in  the  king's  orders,  which  I  am  in  continual 
expectation  of,  that  interferes  with  it."    «  He  is  a  very  deserv- 
ing gentleman,"  wrote  Dinwiddle,  "  and  lias  from  the  begin- 
nmg  commanded  the  forces  of  this  dominion.     He  is  much 
beloved,  has  gone  through  many  hardships  in  the  service,  has 
great  merit,  and  can  raise  more  men  here  than  any  one." 
i>mwidd.e  urged  his  promotion  on  the  British  estabhshment. 
.     On  the  twenty-fifth,  Abercrombie  reached  Albany,  intent 


i:: 


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in 


iS'  I 


I  /tl 


v  -ri,   it- 


I     < 


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452        CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.  ;  cii.  x. 

that  the  regular  officers  should  command  the  provincialit,  and 
that  the  troops  should  be  quartered  on  private  houses.  The 
next  day  Shirley  acquainted  him  with  the  state  of  Oswego, 
advising  that  two  battalions  should  be  sent  forward  for  its  pro- 
tection. The  ))oats  were  ready,  every  magazine  along  the  pas- 
sage plentifully  supplied;  but  tue  general  could  meditate  only 
on  triumphs  of  iiuthoiity.  "  The  great,  the  important  day  for 
Albaiiy  dawned."  On  the  twenty-seventh,  "  in  spite  of  every 
subterfuge,  the  soldiers  were  billeted  upon  the  town."  After 
this,  Abercrombie  still  loitered,  ordering  a  survey  of  Albany, 
that  it  might  be  ditched  and  stockaded  round. 

On  the  twelfth  of  July,  the  brave  Bradstreet  returned  from 
Oswego,  having  thi'own  into  the  fort  six  months'  provision  for 
five  thousand  men  and  a  great  quantity  of  stores.  He  brought 
intelligence  that  a  French  army  was  in  motion  to  attack  the 
place  ;  and  AVebb,  with  the  forty-fourth  regiment,  was  ordered 
to  hold  himself  in  readiness  to  march  to  its  defence.  But 
nothing  was  done.  The  regiments  of  New  England,  wiu'  ^he 
provincials  from  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  amounted  to 
more  than  seven  thousand  men ;  mth  the  British  regular  regi- 
ments, to  more  than  ten  thousand  men,  besides  the  garrison  at 
Oswego.  In  the  previous  year  the  road  iiad  been  opened,  the 
forts  erected.  But  Abercrombie  was  still  at  Albany,  when,  on 
the  twenty-ninth,  the  eai'l  of  Loudoun  arrived.  There  "  the 
viceroy  "  wasted  time,  with  ten  or  twelve  thousand  men  at  his 
disposition  doing  nothing. 

The  French  had  been  more  active.  While  the  savages 
made  inroads  to  the  borders  of  Ulster  and  Orange  counties, 
De  Lery,  leaving  Montreal  in  March  with  more  than  three 
hundred  men,  penetrated  to  Fort  Bull,  at  the  Oneida  portage, 
destroyed  its  stores,  and  returned  with  thirty  prisoners  to 
Montreal.  Near  the  end  of  May,  eight  hundred  men,  led  by 
the  intrepid  and  prudent  Yilhers,  made  their  palisaded  camp 
near  the  mouth  of  Sandy  Creek,  whence  little  pai'ties  inter- 
cepted supplies  for  Oswego. 

Of  the  Six  Nations,  the  fom*  lower  ones — the  Onondagas, 
Oneidas,  Cayugas,  and  Mohawks — sent  thirty  of  their  chiefs  to 
Montreal  to  solicit  neutrality.  They  received  for  answer, 
"  If  you  do  not  join  the  English,  you  shall  not  be  harmed ; " 


1756.     THE  OLD  WHIGS  CANNOT  GOVERN  ENGLAND.      453 

and  the  envoys  of  the  neutral  tribes  returned  laden  with  pres- 

ents. 

Just  then,  the  field-marshal  Marquis  de  Montcalm  arrived 
at  Quebec ;  a  man  of  a  strong  and  well-stored  memory,  of  a 
quick  and  highly  cultivated  mind,  small  in  stature,  rapid  in 
thought  and  in  conversation,  and  of  restless  mobility.  He 
was  accompanied  by  the  Chevalier  de  Levis  Leran,  and  by 
Bourlamarque,  colonel  of  infantry.  Travelling  day  and  night, 
he  hurried  to  Fort  Carillon,  ai;  Ticonderoga,  and  took  measures 
for  improving  its  defences.  He  next  resolved  by  secrecy  and 
celerity  to  take  Oswego.  Collecting  at  Montreal  three  regi- 
inents  from  Quebec,  and  a  large  Ijody  of  Canadians  and  In- 
dians, on  the  fifth  of  August  he  reviewed  his  troops  at  Fronte- 
nac,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  same  day  anchored  in  Sackett's 
Harbor. 

Fort  Oswego,  on  the  right  of  the  river,  was  a  large  stone 
building  suiTounded  by  a  wall  flanked  with  four  small  bastions, 
and  commanded  from  adjacent  heights.     For  its  defence,  Shir- 
ley had  crowned  a  summit  on  the  opposite  bank  with  Fort  On- 
tario.    Against  this  outpost,  Montcahn,  on  the  twelfth  of  Au- 
gust, at  midnight,  opened  his  trenches.    The  next  evening,  the 
garrison  having  expended  tlieir  annmmition,  spiked  their  can- 
non, and  retreated  to  Fort  Oswego.    Innnediately  he  occupied 
the  height,  and  turned  such  of  the  guns  as  were  serviceable 
against  the  remaining  fortress.     His  lire  killed  Mercer,  the 
connnander,  and  soon  made  a  breach  in  the  wall.    On  the  four- 
teenth, just  as  he  was  preparing  to  storm  the  intrenchments, 
the  garrison,  about  sixteen  hundred  in  nujnber,  capitulated. 
Tiie  prisoners  of  war  descended  the  St.  Lawrence ;  their  colors 
were  sent  as  trophies  to  decorate  the  churches  of  Montreal, 
Three  Rivers,  and  Quebec ;  one  hundi-ed  and  twenty  cannon, 
.six  vessels  of  war,  three  hundred  boats,  stores  of  auununition 
and  provisions,  and  three  chests  of  money,  fell  to  the  con- 
querors.    The  missionaries  plantc  il  a  cross  bearing  the  words  : 
"  This  is  the  banner  of  victory ; "  by  its  side  rose  a  pillar  with 
the  arms  of  France,  and  the  inscription:  "Bring  lihes  Avith 
full  hands."     Fxpressions  of  triumphant  ecstasy  broke  from 
Arontcalm ;  but,  to  allay  all  jealousy  of  the  red  men,  he  razed 
the  forts  and  left  Oswego  a  sohtude.    Webb,  after  f elhng  trees 


'I 


l*»  ,  I 


I '  '     'I 


:i!    \'. 


454        CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  en.  x. 

at  the  Oneida  portage  to  obstruct  any  inroad  of  tlie  French, 
fled  in  terror  to  Albany. 

Loudoun  ap])roved  placing  obstacles  between  liis  army  and 
tlie  enemy ;  for  he  "  was  extremely  anxious  about  an  attack "' 
from  the  French  while  "flushed  with  success."  "If  it  had 
been  made  on  the  provincials  alone,  it  would,"  he  compla- 
cently asserted,  "  have  been  followed  with  very  fatal  conse- 
quences." Provincials  had  saved  the  remnant  of  Braddock'ji 
army ;  provincials  had  conquered  Acadia ;  provincials  had  de- 
feated Dieskau :  but  Abercrombie  and  his  chief  sheltered 
their  own  imbecility  under  complaints  of  America,  After 
wasting  a  few  more  weeks  in  busy  inactivity,  Loudoun,  whose 
forces  could  have  penetrated  to  the  lieart  -^f  Canada,  left  the 
French  to  construct  a  fort  at  Ticonderoga,  and  dismissed  the 
provincials  to  their  homes,  the  regulars  to  winter  quarters. 
Of  the  latter,  a  thousand  were  sent  to  Xew  York,  where  free 
quartei-s  for  the  olflcers  were  demanded  of  the  city.  The  de- 
mand was  resisted  by  the  mayor,  as  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
England  and  the  liberties  of  America.  "Free  quarters  are 
everywhere  usual,"  answered  the  commander-in-chief;  "I  as- 
sert it  on  my  honor,  which  is  the  highest  evidence  you  can  re- 
quire." The  citizens  pleaded  in  reply  their  privileges  as  Eng- 
lishmen, by  the  common  law,  by  the  petition  of  right,  and  by 
acts  of  parliament.  Furious  at  the  remonstrance,  the  "  \ice- 
roy,"  with  an  oath,  answered  the  mayor :  "  If  you  do  not  billet 
my  officers  upon  free  quarters  this  day,  I'll  order  here  all  the 
troops  in  North  America  under  my  conmiand,  and  billet  them 
myseK  upon  the  city."  So  the  magistrates  got  up  a  suhscrij)- 
tion  for  the  winter  support  of  ofiicers  who  had  done  nothing 
for  the  country  but  burden  its  resources.  In  Philadelphia, 
Loudoun  uttered  the  same  menace  ;  and  the  storm  was  averted 
by  a  compromise.  The  frontier  had  been  left  open  to  the 
French ;  this  quartering  of  troops  in  the  principal  towns  at  the 
expense  of  the  inhabitants,  by  the  illegal  authority  of  a  mihtary 
chief,  was  the  great  result  of  the  campaign. 

Yet  native  courage  flashed  up  in  every  part  of  the  colonies. 
The  false  Delawares,  from  their  village  at  Ivittanmg,  within 
forty-five  miles  of  Fort  Duquesne,  stained  all  the  border  of 
Pennsylvania  with  blood.     To  destroy  them,  three  hundred 


1750.     THE  OLD  WHIGS   CANNOT  GOVERN  ENGLAND.      455 

Pennsylvanians,  conducted  by  John  Armstrong,  of  Cumber- 
land county,  crossed  the  Allcghanies.     On  the  seventh  of  Sep- 
tember  175G,  they  marched  thirty  miles  through  unbroken 
forests,  and  at  night  were  guided  to  the  village  by  the  beating 
of  a  drum  and  the  whooping  of  warriors  at  a  festival.     On  the 
margin  of  the  river,  they  saw  the  fires  near  which  the  Indians, 
with  no  dreams  of  danger,  took  their  rest.     At  daybreak,  the 
attack  on  the  Delawares  began.     Jacobs  raised  the  war-whoop, 
crying:  "The  white  men  are  come;  we  shall   have  scalps 
enough."     The  squaws  and  children  fled  to  the  woods;  the 
wamors  fought  witli  desperate  bravery  and  skill  as  marksmen. 
"We  are  men,"  they  shouted;  "wo  will  not  be  made  prison- 
ers."   The  town  being  set  on  fire,  some  of  them  sang  their 
death-song  m  the  flames.     Their  store  of  powder,  which  was 
enough  for  a  long  war,  scattered  dcstniction  as  it  exploded. 
Jacobs  and  others,  attempting  flight,  were  shot  and  scalped ; 
the  town  was  burnt  to  ashes,  never  to  be  rebuilt  by  savages. 
But  the  Americans  lost  sixteen  men;  and  Annstrong  was 
among  the  wounded.     Hugh  Mercer,  captain  of  the  company 
which  suffered  most,  was  hit  by  a  musket-ball  in  the  arm,  and, 
with  five  others,  separated  from  the  main  body ;  but,  guided 
by  the  stars  and  rivulets,  they  found  their  way  back.     Penn- 
sylvania has  given  the  name  of  Armstrong  to  the  county  that 
includes  the  battle-field. 

At  the  same  time,  two  hundred  men,  three  fifths  of  whom 
were  provincials,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Demere,  were 
engaged  in  completing  the  new  Fort  Loudoun,  near  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Tellico  and  the  Tennessee.  The  Cherokecs  "were 
much  divided  in  sentiment ;  "  [Jse  all  means  you  think  proper," 
wrote  Lyttelton,  "to  induce  our  Indians  to  take  up  the  hatchet; 
promise  a  reward  to  every  man  who  shall  bring  in  the  scalp  of 
a  Frenchman  or  of  a  French  Indian." 

In  December,  the  Six  Nations  sent  a  hundred  and  eighty 
delegates  to  meet  the  Nipisings,  the  Algonkins,  the  Pottawato- 
mies,  and  the  Ottawas  at  Montreal.  All  promised  neutrality ; 
though  the  young  braves  wished  to  join  the  French,  and  trod 
the  English  medals  under  foot. 

In  England,  the  cabinet  connnanded  a  subservient  major- 
ity, and  yet  was  crumbling  in  pieces  from  its  incapacity  and 


fl 


■  I 


•i 


456        CONQUEST  OF  TIIF  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ki-. 


I. ;  'ju.  X. 


the  weariness  of  the  people  of  England  at  the  unmixed  govern- 
ment of  the  aristocracy.  The  great  commoner,  a  poor  and  now 
a  private  man,  "  prepared  to  take  the  reins  out  of  such  hands  • " 
and  the  influence  of  popular  opinion  came  in  aid  of  his  just 
ambition.  In  June  175G,  Prince  George,  being  eighteen,  be- 
came of  age ;  and  Newcastle,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  king, 
would  have  separated  his  establishment  from  that  of  his  moth- 
er. They  both  were  opposed  to  the  separation  ;  and  Pitt  ex- 
erted his  influence  against  it  with  a  zeal  and  activity  of  which 
they  were  most  sensible. 

The  earl  of  Bute  had  been  one  of  the  lords  of  the  l)ed- 
charnber  to  the  late  prince  of  Wales,  who  used  to  call  him  "  a 
tine,  showy  man,  such  as  would  make  an  excellent  ambassador 
in  a  court  where  there  was  no  business."  He  was  ambitious, 
yet  his  personal  timidity  loved  to  lean  on  a  nature  finner  than 
his  own.  Though  his  learning  was  small,  he  was  willing  to  be 
thought  a  man  who  could  quote  Horace,  and  And  pleasure  in 
Vu-gil  and  Columella.  He  had  an  air  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance, and  in  look  and  manner  assumed  an  extraordinary  ap- 
pearance of  wisdom.  As  a  consistent  and  obsequious  royalist, 
he  retained  the  confidence  of  the  princess  dowager,  and  was  the 
instructor  of  the  future  sovereign  of  England  in  the  theory  of 
the  British  constitution.  On  the  organization  of  his  house- 
hold. Prince  George  desired  to  have  him  about  his  person. 

The  request  of  the  prince,  which  Pitt  supported,  was  re- 
sisted by  JSewcastle  and  by  Hardwicke.  To  embroil  the  royal 
family,  the  latter  did  not  hesitate  to  assail  the  reputation  of  the 
mother  of  the  heir-apparent  by  tales  of  malicious  scandal.  In 
the  first  public  act  of  Prince  George,  he  displayed  the  persist- 
ency of  Ins  character.  Heedless  of  the  prime  minister  and  the 
chancellor,  but  witli  many  professions  of  duty  to  the  king,  he 
expressed  "  his  desires,  nay,  his  fixed  resolutiouG,"  to  have  "  the 
free  choice  of  his  servants."  Having  trifled  with  the  resent- 
ment of  the  successor  and  his  mother,  Newcastle  became  teni- 
fied  and  yielded. 

Restless  at  sharing  the  disgrace  of  an  administration  which 
met  everywhere  with  defeat  except  in  the  venal  house  of  com- 
mons. Fox  declared  "  his  situation  impracticable,"  and  left  the 
cabinet.     At  the  same  time,  Murray,  refusing  to  serve  longer 


1756-1757.      THE  OLD  WHIGS  CANNOT  GOVERN. 


467 


as  attorney-general,  would  be  lord  chief  justice  with  a  i)eerage, 
or  retire  to  private  life.  The  place  had  been  vacant  a  term  and 
a  circuit;  Newcastle  dared  not  make  more  delay;  and  the 
influence  of  Bute  and  Pi-iuce  George  prevailed  to  bring  Mur- 
ray as  Lord  Manslield  upon  the  bench.  No  one  was  left  in 
the  house  who,  even  with  a  sure  majority,  dared  attempt  to 
cope  with  Pitt.  Newcastle  sought  to  negotiate  witli  him. 
"  A  plain  man,"  he  answered,  "  unjiracticed  in  the  policy  of 
a  court,  must  never  presume  to  be  the  associate  of  so  experi- 
enced a  minister."  "  Wi-ite  to  him  yourself,"  said  Newcastle  to 
Hardwicke;  "don't  boggle  at  it;  you  see  the  king  wishes  it; 
Lady  Yarmouth  advises  it;"  and  Hardwicke  saw  him.  But 
Pitt,  after  a  tlu-ee  hours'  interview,  gave  him  a  totally  negative 
answer,  unless  there  should  be  a  change  both  of  "the  dulce  of 
Newcastle  and  his  measures ; "  and  at  last,  unable  to  gain  re- 
cruits, the  leader  of  the  whig  aristocracy,  having  still  an  un- 
doubted majority  in  the  house  of  commons,  was  compelled  to 
recognise  the  power  of  opinion  in  England  as  greater  than  his 
own,  and  most  reluctantly  resigned.  The  exclusive  whig  party, 
which  had  ruled  since  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover' 
had  never  possessed  the  affection  of  the  people  of  England^ 
and  no  longer  enjoyed  its  confidence. 

At  this  time  Pitt  found  the  earl  of  Bute  "  transcend ingly 
obliging ; "  and,  from  the  young  heir  to  the  throne,  "  expres- 
sions" were  repeated  "so  decisive  of  determined  purposes"  of 
favor  "in  the  pres^ent  or  any  future  day,"  that  "his  own  lively 
imagination  could  not  have  suggested  a  wish  beyond  them." 
In  December  1750,  the  man  of  the  people,  the  sincere  lover  of 
hberty,  having  on  his  side  the  English  nation,  of  which  he  was 
the  noblest  type,  formed  a  ministry. 

But  the  transition  in  England  from  the  rule  of  the  aristoc- 
racy to  a  greater  degree  of  jjopular  influence  could  not  as  yet 
take  place.  If  there  was  an  end  of  the  old  aiistocratic  inile,  it 
was  not  clear  what  would  come  in  its  stead.  The  condition 
of  the  new  minister  was  seen  to  be  precarious.  On  entering 
office,  Pitt's  health  was  so  infinn  that  he  took  the  oath  at  his 
own  house,  though  the  record  l)ears  date  at  St.  James's.  The 
house  of  conunons,  which  he  was  to  lead,  had  been  chosen  un- 
der the  direction  of  Newcastle  whom  he  superseded.     George 


lii 


cn.  X. 


mw  I 


[>    f 


458       COXQUK ST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  , 

II.,  spiritless  and  iindisceniing,  liked  subjection  to  genius  still 
less  tliau  to  aristocracy.  On  the  other  hand,  Prince  ({eorge, 
in  March  17') 7,  sent  assurances  to  Pitt  of  "the  iimi  supimrt 
and  countenance"  of  the  heir  to  the  throne.  "Go  on,  my 
dear  Pitt,"  said  Jiute ;  "  make  every  bad  subject  your  declared 
enemy,  every  honest  man  your  real  friend.  How  nmch  we 
think  alike !  I,  for  my  part,  am  unalterably  your  most  affec- 
tionate friend."  But  in  the  house  of  commons,  the  friends  of 
Newcastle  were  too  powerful ;  in  the  council,  the  king  encour- 
jiged  opposition. 

America  was  bocorac  the  great  object  of  European  atten- 
tion; Pitt,  disreg;irding  the  churlish  cavils  of  the  lords  of 
trade,  pursued  toward  the  colonies  the  generous  policy  which 
afterward  called  forth  all  their  strength.  Ite  respected  their 
liberties  and  relied  on  their  willing  co-operation.  Halifax  was 
planning  taxati(m  by  parliament;  in  January  1757,  the  British 
press  defended  the  scheme,  and  the  project  of  an  American 
stamp  act  was  pressed  upon  Pitt.  "  With  the  enemy  at  their 
backs,  with  English  bayonets  at  their  breast,  in  the  day  of  their 
distress,  perhaps  the  Americans,"  thought  he,  "  would  submit 
to  the  imposition;"  but  he  sconied  "to  take  an  unjust  and 
ungenerous  advantage "  of  them.  To  uproot  disloyalty  from 
the  mountains  of  Scotland,  lie  sought  in  them  defenders  of 
America ;  and  two  battalions,  each  of  a  thousand  Highlanders, 
were  soon  after  raised  for  the  service. 

As  yet  li )  was  thwarted  at  every  step.  Without  a  change 
in  the  cabinet,  the  duke  of  Cumberland  was  unwilling  to  take 
the  command  in  Germany.  Temple  was  therefore  dismissed ; 
and,  as  Pitt  did  not  resign,  the  king,  in  the  first  week  in  April, 
discarded  him.  England  was  in  a  state  of  anarchy,  to  which 
all'airs  in  America  corresponded. 


-'  i 


lib. 


1757.     THE  OLD  Wmus  CANNOT  CONQUER  CANADA.     459 


CHAPTEIl  Xr. 


!;'l 


THE   WIIIO    AKISTOCUACV   C.VNNOT    CONQUER    CANADA. 
IN   THE   ADMINISTUATION. 


ANARCHY 


1757. 

The  rangers  at  Fort  William  Henry  defy  the  Avinter.  The 
forests,  pathless  with  snows ;  tlie  frozen  lake ;  the  wilderness, 
which  has  no  shelter  against  cold  and  storms;  the  perilous  ain- 
hush,  where  defeat  may  he  followed  by  the  scalping-knife,  or 
tortures,  or  captivity  among  remotest  tribes— all  cannot  ch^'ll 
their  daring.  On  skates  they  glide  over  the  lakes ;  on  snow- 
shoes  they  pass  through  the  woods.  In  January  1757,  the  gal- 
lant Stark,  with  seventy-four  rangers,  goes  down  Lake  George, 
and  turns  the  strong  post  of  Carillon.  A  French  party  of  ten 
or  eleven  sledges  is  driving  merrily  from  Tlconderoga  to  Crown 
Point.  Stark  sallies  forth  to  attack  them;  three  are  taken, 
with  twice  as  many  horses,  and  seven  prisoners.  But,  before 
ho  can  rf.nich  the  water's  edge,  I  '  "cepted  by  a  party  of 

two  hundred  and  fifty  French  a 
and  a  rishig  ground,  he  renews 
till  evening.     In  the  night,  the  si 
over  the  lake,  brings  home  the  aao,  . 

had  fallen,  six  were  missing.     Those  who  remained  alive  were 
applauded,  and  Stark  received  promotion. 

The  French  are  still  more  adventurous.  A  detachment  of 
fifteen  hundred  men,  part  regidars  and  part  Canadians,  are  to 
follow  the  younger  Yiiudreuil  in  a  winter's  expedition  agamst 
Fort  ■\Villiani  Henry.  Tliey  must  travel  sixty  leagues ;  snow- 
shoes  on  their  feet ;  their  ])rovisions  on  sledges  drawn  by  dogs ; 
their  couch  at  night,  a  bear-skin ;  thus  they  go  over  Champlain, 
over  Lake  George.     On  St.  Patrick's  night,  a  man  in  front 


Sheltered  by  trees 

'e  unequal  fight 

; ;  a  sleigh,  sent 

)urteeu  ranger? 


I 


400       CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.;  oh.  xi. 

trit'H  till'  Htrt'tiyth  uf  tho  icu  with  ati  ii\.  ,  this  icL'-spm-H  v'luir  ag 
tlio  party  mlvanco  over  tliu  cryHtal  lii<4li\Viiy,  with  Kuiliii"-  lad- 
(IcrH,  to  Hurpriwc)  the  Eiiglirth  fort.  I>iit  the  garrisr»ii  wiiH  on  tho 
wateh ;  and  the  enemy  could  only  hurn  the  Mu^HkIi  hattcaiix 
and  sloops,  the  storehouses  and  huts  within  the  pickets. 

For  the  ('iinipaiij;M  of  1757,  the  northern  colonies,  still  ea^er 
to  extenil  the  English  limits,  at  a  congress  of  governors  in  ijos- 
toii,  In  January,  agreed  to  raise  four  thousand  men.  The  gov- 
ernors of  North  Carolina,  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  remisyl- 
vnnia,  meeting  at  l*liiladeli)hia,  settled  tho  quotas  for  their 
governments,  hut  only  as  tho  groundwork  for  compulsory 
tneasures. 

Of  I'ennsylvanii!,  the  })eoplo  had  never  heen  numhered; 
yet,  with  the  counties  on  Delaware,  were  believed  to  he  not 
lep-  than  two  hundred  thousand,  of  whom  thirty  tliousau '  were 
able  to  bear  arms.  It  had  no  militia  established  by  la\v  ;  but 
forts  and  garrisons  protected  the  frontiei-,  at  the  annual  cost  to 
the  province  of  .  cventy  thousand  pounds  currency.  To  die 
grant  in  the  former  year  of  sixty  thousand  ijound.;,  the  assem- 
bly had  added  a  sup|)lement  of  one  hundred  thousand  more, 
taxing  the  property  of  tho  proprietaries  in  its  fair  pro^jortion ; 
but  they  refused  to  contribute  anything  to  a  general  fund. 
Tho  salary  of  the  governor  was  either  not  paid  at  all,  or  not  till 
the  clnse  of  the  year.  "When  any  ofliee  was  created,  the  names 
of  those  who  were  to  execute  it  were  inserted  in  the  bill,  with 
a  clause  reserving  to  the  assend)ly  tho  right  of  nomination  in 
case  of  death.  Sheriffs,  coroners,  and  all  persons  connected 
with  the  treasury,  were  thus  named  by  tho  i)eoi)le  '.uniually, 
and  were  responsible  only  to  their  constituents.  The  assembly 
could  not  jc  prorogued  or  dissolved,  and  adjourned  itself  at  its 
own  pleasure.  It  assumed  almost  all  executive  pi^wer,  and 
scarce  a  bill  came  up  without  an  attemi)t  to  encroach  on  the 
little  residue.  "  In  the  Jerseys  and  in  Pennsylvania,"  wTote 
Loudoun,  thinking  to  influence  the  mind  of  Pitt,  "  the  majority 
of  tho  assembly  is  composed  of  Quakers :  wliile  that  is  the  case, 
they  will  always  oppose  every  measure  of  government,  and 
Bupp  ■  t  that  independence  which  is  deep-rooted  everywhere  in 
this  country.  If  some  method  is  not  found  out  of  laying  on  a 
tax  for  the  supjjort  of  a  war  in  America  by  a  British  act  of 


^-^^ 


1767.     TIIF-:  OLi)   WlirOS  CANNOT  CONQUER  CANAI).»       401 

l)aHi'urjcnt,  you  will  coiitiiiuo  to  have  no  jispiHtance  f  om  them 
in  iiioiioy,  ami  will  liavo  very  little  in  men,  if  they  are  wanted." 
The  deadlock  Kprung  from  the  niireas(»nal)l()  and  olwtinate  sel- 
HnlineHH  of  the  proprietaries.  The  peoi)l'j  of  Per.nsylvania 
looked  to  piifliaineiit  for  relief  from  their  olwtnictive  nile ; 
and,  in  February  17.57,  lienjamin  Franklin  was  chosen  agent 
"to  represent  in  En<,'land  the  nnhai>py  situation  of  the  prov- 
ince, that  all  occasion  ol  dispute  hereafter  might  bo  removed 
by  an  act  of  the  T?riti«h  legislature." 

While  Franklin  wius  at  New  York  to  take  jiassage,  and 
tl  re  was  no  nn"nistry  in  England  to  restrain  the  lords  of 
trade,  the  house  of  commons  adopted  the  memorable  resolve, 
that  "  the  claim  of  right  in  a  colonial  assembly  to  raise  and 
apply  publi(!  money,  [>y  its  own  act  alone,  is  derogatory  to  the 
crown  an('  to  the  rights  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain;"  and 
this  resolve  was  authoritatively  comnmnioated  to  every  Ameri- 
can assembly.  "The  people  of  Pennsylvan*.,  .aid  ThomiW) 
Penn,  "will  soon  bo  convinced  by  the  house  A  commons,  as 
well  as  by  the  ministers,  that  they  have  not  a  right  to  the 
powers  of  government  they  claim."  "  Your  American  assem- 
blies," said  Uranville,  president  of  the  privy  council,  to  Frank- 
Hn,  soon  after  his  arT*-\al,  "slight  the  king's  instructions. 
They  are  drawn  up  by  grave  men,  learned  in  the  laws  and 
constitution  of  the  realm  ;  they  are  brought  into  council,  thor- 
oughly weighed,  well  considered,  and  a-nended,  if  necessary, 
by  the  wisdom  of  that  body ;  and,  when  received  by  the  gov- 
ernors, they  are  the  laws  of  the  land  ;  for  the  king  is  the  leg- 
islator of  the  colonies."  This  doctrine  fell  on  Franklin  as 
new,  and  was  never  effaced  from  his  memory.  In  its  preced- 
ing session,  parliament  had  laid  grievous  restrictions  on  the 
export  of  provisions  from  the  British  colonies.  The  act  pro- 
duced a  remonstrance  from  their  agents.  "America,"  an- 
swered Granville,  "must  not  do  anything  to  in:erfere  with 
Great  Britain  in  the  European  markets."  "  If  we  plant  and 
reap,  and  must  not  ship,"  retorted  Franklin,  "  your  lordship 
should  apply ^  to  parhament  for  transports  to  bring  us  all  back 
again." 

In  America,  the  summor  passed  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected from  "  detachments  under  commanders  whom  a  child 


:^iii^ 


nrmi 


462       CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.;  en.  xi. 

miglit  outwit  or  terrify  with  a  popgiin."  To  Bouquet  was 
assigned  the  watch  on  the  frontiers  of  Carolina ;  Stanwix.  witb 
about  two  thousand  men,  had  charge  of  tlie  West ;  while  Webb 
was  left,  with  nearly  six  thousand  men,  to  defend  the  avenue 
to  Lake  George  ;  and,  on  the  twentieth  day  of  June,  the  earl 
of  Loudoun,  having  first  incensed  all  America  by  a  useless  em- 
bargo, and  having  iu  New  York,  at  one  sweep,  impressed  four 
hundred  men,  weighed  anchor  for  Halifax.  Four  British  regi- 
ments, two  battaUons  of  royal  Americans,  and  five  companies 
of  rangers,  accompanied  him.  "  His  sailing,"  said  the  Cana- 
dians, "  is  a  hint  for  us  to  project  something  on  this  frontier." 
Loudoun  reached  Halifax  on  the  last  day  of  June,  and  found 
detachments  from  England  already  there;  on  the  ninth  of 
July  the  entire  armament  was  assembled. 

At  that  time,  Newcastle  was  "  reading  Loudoun's  letters 
with  attention  and  satisfaction,"  and  praising  his  "  gi*eat  dih- 
gence  and  ability."  "My  lord,"  said  he,  "  mentions  an  act  of 
parliament  to  be  passed  here ;  I  don't  well  understand  what  he 
means  by  it."  Prince  George  was  specially  thoughtful  to 
guard  America  against  free-thinkers,  and  sent  over  a  hundred 
pounds'  worth  of  answer  to  deistical  writers. 

Loudoun  found  himself  in  Hahfax  at  the  head  of  an  admi- 
rable army  of  ten  thousand  men,  with  a  fleet  of  sixteen  ships  of 
the  line  besides  frigates.  There  he  landed,  levelled  the  uneven 
ground  for  a  parade,  planted  a  vegetable  garden  as  a  precau- 
tion against  the  scurvy,  exercised  tlie  men  in  mock  battles  and 
sieges  and  stormin --s  of  fortresses,  and,  when  August  came,  and 
the  spirit  of  the  army  was  broken,  and  Hay,  a  major-general, 
expressed  contempt  so  loudly  as  to  be  arrested,  the  troops  were 
embarked,  as  if  for  Louisl)urg.  But,  ere  the  ships  sailed,  the 
reconnoitring  vessels  came  with  news  that  the  French  at  Cape 
Breton  had  one  ship  more  than  the  English ;  and  the  plan  of 
the  campaign  was  changed.  Part  of  the  soldiers  landed  again 
at  Halifax ;  and  the  earl  of  Loudoun,  leaving  his  garden  and 
place  of  arms  to  weeds  and  briers,  sailed  for  New  York.  He 
had  been  but  two  days  out  when  he  was  met  by  an  express, 
with  such  tidings  as  were  to  have  been  expected. 

How  peacefully  rest  the  waters  of  Lake  George  between 
their  rampart  of  highlands !      In   their   pellucid   depths  tlie 


■i.i 
'■'1 


1757.     THE   OLD  WHIGS  CANNOT  CONQUER  CANADA.     4(;3 

cliffs  and  the  hills  and  the  trees  trace  their  image  •  and  the 
beautiful  region  speaks  to  the  heart,  teaching  affection  for 
nature.  As  yet  not  a  hamlet  rose  on  its  margin ;  not  a  strag- 
gler had  thatched  a  log  hut  in  its  neighborhood ;  only  at  its 
head,  near  the  centre  of  a  wider  opening  between  its  moun- 
tains. Fort  Wilham  Henry  stood  on  its  bank,  almost  on  a  level 
with  the  lake.  Lofty  hills  overhung  and  commanded  the  wild 
scene,  but  heavy  artillery  had  not  as  yet  accompanied  war- 
parties  into  the  ^vilderness. 

^  The  Oneidaii  danced  the  war-dance  with  Vaudrei."!.     "We 
will  try  the  hatchet  of  our  father  on  the  EngUsh,  to  see  if  it 
cuts  well,"  said  the  Senecas  of  Niagara;  and  when  Johnson 
complained  of  depredations  on  his  cattle,  "  You  begin  crying 
quite  early,"  they  answered;  "you  mil  soon  see  other  things." 
"  The  English  have  built  a  fort  on  the  lands  of  Onondio  " 
spoke  Vaudreuil,  governor  of  N"ew  France,  to  a  congress  It 
Montreal  of  the  warriors  of  three-and-thirty  nations,  who  had 
come  together,  some  from  the  rivers  of  Maine  and  Acadia 
some  from  the  wilderness  round  Lake  Huron  and  Lake  Suiierior' 
"I  am  ordered,"  he  continued,  "to  destroy  it.     Go,  witness 
what  I  shall  do,  that,  when  you  return  to  your  mats,  you  may 
recount  what  you  have  seen."    They  took  his  belt  of  Avampum, 
and  answered:  "Father,  we  are  come  to  do  your  will."    Day 
after  day,  at  Montreal,  Montcalm  sung  the  war-song  with  the 
several  tribes.     They  rallied  at  Fort  St.  John,  on  the  Sorel, 
their  missionaries  with  them;  and  hymns  were  chanted  in 
almost  as  many  dialects  as  there  were  nations.     On  the  sixth 
day,  as  they  discerned  the  battlements  of  Ticonderoga,  the  fleet 
arranged  itself  in  order ;  and  two  hundred  canoes,  tilled  with 
braves,  each  nation  with  its  own  pennons,  swept  over  the  water 
to  the  landing-place.     The  martial  aire  of  France,  and  shouts 
in  the  many  tongues  of  the  red  men,  resounded  among  the 
rocks  and  forests  and  mountains.     The  mass,  too,  was  solemnly 
said ;  and  to  the  Abenaki  converts,  seated  reverently,  in  deco- 
rous silence,  on  the  ground,  the  \mest  urged  the  duty  of  honor- 
ing Christianity  by  their  example,  in  the  presence  of  so  many 
infidel  braves. 

It  was  a  season  of  scarcity  in  Canada.     N'one  had  been  left 
umnolested  to  plough  and  plant;  the  miserable  inhabitants  had 


iif. 


5     t 


n; 


464       CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.  ;  ch.  xi. 


■Hi 

m^ 

l\ 

1 

1 

k 

■]-  '    ■ 

'"{ 

f 

ih\  ,. 

n 

Pi 

■! 

no  bread.  But  small  stores  were  collected  for  the  army.  They 
must  conquer  speedily  or  disband.  "  On  such  an  expedition  " 
said  Montcalm  to  his  officers,  "  a  blanket  and  a  bear-skin  are  the 
warrior's  couch.  Do  like  me  with  cheerfiU  good-will.  The 
soldier's  allowance  is  enough  for  us." 

During  the  short  period  of  preparation,  Marin  brought 
back  his  two  hundred  men  from  the  skirts  of  Fort  Edward. 
"  Pie  did  not  amuse  liimseK  with  making  prisoners,"  said 
Montcalm,  on  seeing  but  one  captive ;  and  the  red  men  yelled 
for  joy  as  they  counted  in  the  canoes  two-and-forty  scalps  of 
Englishmen. 

The  Ottawas  watched  in  ambuscades  all  the  twenty-third  of 
July,  and  all  the  following  night,  for  the  American  boatmen. 
At  daybreak  of  the  twenty-fourth,  Palmer  was  seen  on  the  lake 
in  command  of  two-and-twenty  barges.  The  Indians  rushed 
on  his  party  suddenly,  terrified  them  by  their  yeUs,  and,  after 
killing  many,  took  one  hundred  and  sixty  prisoners.  "To- 
morrow or  next  day,"  said  the  captives,  "  General  Webb  win 
be  at  the  fort  with  fresh  troops."  "  No  matter,"  said  Mont- 
calm ;  "  in  less  than  twelve  days  I  will  have  a  good  story  to 
tell  about  them."  The  timid  AVebb  went,  it  is  true,  to  Fort 
"WiUiam  Henry,  but  took  care  to  leave  it  with  a  large  escort, 
just  in  season  to  escape  from  its  siege. 

It  is  the  custom  of  the  red  man,  after  success,  to  avoid  the 
further  chances  of  -\\  .ir  and  hurry  home.  "  To  remain  now," 
said  the  Ottawas,  "would  be  to  tempt  the  master  of  life."  But 
Montcalm,  after  the  boats  and  canoes  had,  without  oxen  or 
horses,  been  borne  up  to  Lake  George,  held  on  the  plain  above 
the  portage  one  general  council  of  union.  The  many  tribes 
were  seated  on  the  ground  according  to  their  rank ;  and,  in  the 
name  of  Louis  XV.,  Montcalm  produced  the  mighty  belt  of  six 
thousand  shells,  which,  being  solemnly  accepted,  bound  all  by 
the  holiest  ties  to  remain  together  till  the  end  of  the  expedi- 
tion. The  belt  was  given  to  the  Iroquois,  as  the  most  numer- 
ous ;  but  they  courteously  transferred  it  to  the  upper  nations, 
who  came,  tliough  strangers,  to  their  aid.  In  the  scarcity  of 
boats,  the  Iroquois  agreed  to  guide  Levi,  with  twenty-five  hun- 
dred men,  through  the  rugged  country  which  they  called  their 


own. 


175r.  THE  OLD  WHIGS  CAx>fNOT  CONQUER  CANADA.  465 
The  Christian  savages  employed  their  short  leisure  at  tl,P 
confessional;  the  tribes  from  above,  restlessly  weary  Lined 
dreams,  consulted  the  great  medicine  men,  and,  LZTut 
the  complete  equipment  of  a  war-chief  as  an  off  rW To  f hefr 
man^ou,  embarked  on  the  last  day  of  July  in  theirlcorat 

with^^L'''''*  ^'T'i^^^^^'^r^  -ft«r  noon,  Montcalm  followed 

night,  till  they  came  m  sight  of  the  three  triangular  fires  that 
from  a  mountam  ridge,  pointed  to  the  encamjLent  oS 
There,  m  Ganousky,  or,  as  some  call  it,  North-west  bay  tW 
lield  a  council  of  war;  and  then,  with  th;  artillery,  tl'  totd 
slowly  to  a  bay,  of  which  the  pomt  could  not  be  tu^^d  .Wth 
out  exposure  to  the  enemy.   An  hour  before  midnig^    00^1' 
of  English  boats  wero  descried  on  the  lake,  whenfome  Tthe 
upper  Indians  paddled  two  canoes  to  attack  them,"nd  ^^ 
^ich  celerity  that  one  of  the  boats  wa.  seized  and  ov  r^oteTed 
Two  pnsoners  bemg  reserved,  the  rest  were  massacred.     T^ 

^fsbgs      '"'  """""'  '  ^'"'  '^''^''^'  '^  '^'  ^^*^^^  «f  *te 

ruf^'i  *^'  T"""™"^  ""^  *^'  '''"^^^  '^'y  ^f  ^"g^^«t>  tte  savages 

chl    fT-^  T^  ''^  "^*^^'  ^^^'  ^^™---  ---  the  lakfa 

Cham  of  their  bark  canoes,  they  made  the  bay  resound  with 

their  war-cry.     The  English  were  taken  almost  by  surp^^e 

Their  tents  still  covered  the  plains.     Montcalm  disembrrd 

without  mtemiption,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  below  the  fort 

and  advanced  in  three  columns.     The  Indians  hurried  to  bmn' 

the  barracks  of  the  English,  to  chase  their  cattle  and  horses 

to  scalp  then,  stragglers.     During  the  day  they  occupied,  wi 

and  cut  off  the  commumeation.  At  the  north  was  the  en^ 
cainpment  of  Levi,  with  regulars  and  Canadians;  while  Mont- 
calm, with  the  main  body  of  the  army,  occupied  the  skirt  of 
the  wood,  on  the  west  side  of  the  lake.     His  force  consisted 

llT  TT"^  ^T'^  '^^  ^^"''^^'''^^^«'  '"^'^  '-^^-"t  seventeen 
liandred  Indians.     Fort  William  Henry  was  defended  by  the 

'rave  Lieutenant-Colonel  Monro,  with  less  than  five  hundred 

men,  while  seventeen  hundred  men  lay  intrenched  on   the 

TOL.   11.— 30 


I" 

I: 


4G6       CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    up.  i. ;  en.  xi. 


I 


eminence  to  the  soutli-east,  now  marked  by  tlie  ruins  of  Fort 
George. 

Meantime,  the  braves  of  the  Nipisings,  faithful  to  the  rites 
of  their  fathers,  celebrated  the  funeral  of  their  departed  war- 
rior. The  lifeless  frame,  dressed  as  became  a  war-chief,  glit- 
tered with  belts  and  ear-rings  and  brilliant  vermilion ;  a  rib- 
bon, fiery  red,  supported  a  gorget  on  his  breast ;  the  tomahav;k 
was  in  his  girdle,  the  pipe  at  his  lips,  the  lance  in  his  hand,  at 
his  side  the  well-filled  bowl ;  and  thus  he  sat  upright  on  the 
green  turf.  The  speech  for  the  dead  was  pronounced;  the 
dances  and  chants  followed  ;  human  voices  mingled  with  the 
sound  of  drums  and  tinkling  bells.  Thus  seated  and  arrayed, 
he  was  consigned  to  the  grave. 

On  the  fourth  of  August,  the  French  summoned  Monro 
to  surrender ;  but  he  sent  an  answer  of  defiance.  Montcahn 
hastened  his  works ;  the  troops  dragged  the  artillery  over  rocks 
and  through  the  forests,  and  with  alacrity  brought  fascines  and 
gabions.  Soon  the  first  battery,  of  nine  cannon  and  two  mor- 
tars, was  finished ;  and,  amid  the  loud  screams  of  the  savages, 
it  began  to  play,  with  a  thousand  echoes  from  the  mountains. 
lu  two  days  moi'e,  a  second  was  established,  and,  by  means  of 
the  zigzags,  the  Indians  could  stand  within  gun-shot  of  the 
fortress.  Just  then  arrived  letters  from  France,  conferring  on 
Montcalm  the  red  ribbon,  with  rank  as  Icnight  commander  of 
the  order  of  St.  Louis.  "  We  are  glad,"  said  the  red  men,  "  of 
the  favor  done  you  by  the  great  Onondio ;  but  we  neither  love 
you  nor  esteem  you  the  more  for  it ;  we  love  the  man,  and  not 
what  hangs  on  his  outside."  Webb,  at  Fort  Edward,  had  an 
army  of  four  thousand,  and  might  have  summoned  the  militia 
from  all  the  near  villages  to  the  rescue.  lie  sent  nothing  but 
a  letter,  with  an  exaggerated  account  of  the  French  force,  and 
advice  to  capitulate.  Montcalm  intercepted  the  letter,  and 
immediately  forwarded  it  to  Monro.  Yet  not  till  the  eve  of 
the  festival  of  St.  Lawrence,  when  half  his  guns  were  burst 
and  his  anmmnition  was  almost  exhausted,  did  the  dauntless 
veteran  hang  out  a  flag  of  trace. 

To  make  the  capitulation  inviolably  binding  on  the  Indians, 
Montcalm  summoned  their  war-chiefs  to  council.  The  Eng- 
lish were  to  depart  under  an  escort  with  the  honors  of  war,  on 


*  ^ 


1757. 


THE  OLD   WHIGS  CANNOT  CONQUER  CANADA. 


467 

a  pledge  not  to  serve  against  the  French  for  eighteen  months- 
hey  were  to  abandon  all  but  their  private  effect ;  ever,  S 
dian  or  Lrench  L.dian  c-aptive  waa  to  be  liberatU.     Thel 

ninth  Si'  ''?  T!"''^^""  ™  '^^'^-  ^'^  -  the 
ninth,  the  Prench  entered  the  fort,  and  the  English  retired  to 
their  intrenched  camp.  ^ 

Montcalm  had  kept  from  the  savages  all  intoxicating  drinks  • 
but  they  obtained  them  of  the  Enghsh,  and  all  ni|ht  long 
were  wild  with  dances  and  songs  and  revelry.     The  AbenaS 
of  Acadia  inflamed  other  tribes  by  recalUng  their  suS 
from  Enghsh  perfidy  and  power.    At  daybredc,  they  gS 
round  «ie  intrenchments,  and,  as  the  terrified  Englifh^soldS. 
filed  off,  began  to  plunder  them,  and  incited  one  another  t^ 
use  the  tomahawk.     Twenty,  perhaps  even  thirty,  persons  were 
massacred,  whi  e  very  many  were  made  prisoners.     Officers 
and  soldiers,  stnpped  of  everything,  fled  to  the  woods,  to  the 
fort,  to  the  tents  of  the  French.     To  arrest  the  disorder, 

Frol)  T  "'"  '^"  T''''  ^™S  ^'^'''  ^  *^--«-d  tunes 
French  officers  received  wounds  in  rescuing  the  captives,  and 
stood  at  their  teats  as  sentries  over  those  they  had  recovered. 
Kill  me,  cned  Montcahn,  using  prayers  and  menaces  and 
promises ;  "  but  spare  the  English,  who  are  under  my  protec- 
tion; and  he  urged  the  troops  to  defend  themselves.  The 
march  to  Fort  Edward  was  a  flight;  not  more  than  six  him- 
dred  reached  there  in  a  body.  From  the  French  camp,  Mont- 
calm^ collected  together  more  than  four  hundred,  who  were 
dismissed  with  a  great  escort;  and  he  sent  Yaudreuil  to  ran- 
som those  whom  the  Indians  had  earned  away 

roh-rtf '  t'  rT^'^  °^  ^'"^  ^^^"^^™  ^^^^^^^'  '^'^  «a^ages 
ctired      Twelve  hundred  men  were  employed  to  demolish 
he  lort,  and  nearly  a  thousand  to  lade  the  vast  stores  that  had 
been  ^ivon  up.     As  Montcalm  withdrew,  he  praised  his  happy 
fortune,  that  his  victory  was,  on  his  own  side,  almost  bloodless, 
his  loss  m  killed  and  wounded  being  but  fifty-three.     The 
Uuiadian  peasants  returned  to  gather  their  harvests,  and  the 
ake  resumed  its  solitude.     Nothing  told  that  civilized  man 
had  reposed  upon  its  margin  but  the  charred  rafters  of  ruins, 
and  here  and  there,  on  the  side-hill,  a  crucifix  among  the  pines 
to  mark  a  grave. 


rr 


"/, 


,'    f        ! . 


4:08       CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  en.  xi. 

Pusillanimity  pervaded  tlie  English  camp.  Webb  at  Fort 
Edward,  witli  six  thousand  men,  was  expecting  to  be  attacked 
every  minute.  He  sent  ofE  his  own  baggage,  and  wished  to 
retreat  to  the  highlands  on  the  Hudson.  "  For  God's  sake," 
wrote  the  officer  in  command  at  Albany  to  the  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  "  exert  yourselves  to  save  a  province ;  New  York 
itself  may  fall ;  save  a  country ;  prevent  the  downfall  of  the 
British  government."  Pownall  ordered  the  inhabitants  west 
of  Connecticut  river  to  destroy  their  wheel-carriages  and  drive 
in  their  cattle.  Loudoun  proposed  to  encamp  on  Long  Island, 
for  the  defence  of  the  continent.  Every  day  it  was  rumored : 
"  My  Lord  Loudoun  goes  soon  to  Albany ;  "  and  still  each  day 
found  him  at  New  York.  "  We  have  a  great  number  of 
troops,"  said  even  royalists ;  "  but  the  inhabitants  on  the  fron- 
tier will  not  be  one  jot  the  safer  for  them." 

The  English  had  been  driven  from  the  basin  of  the  Ohio ; 
Montcalm  had  destroyed  every  vestige  of  their  power  within 
that  of  the  St.  Lawrence;  and  the  claim  of  France  to  the 
valleys  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  St.  Lawrence  seemed  estab- 
lished by  possession.  France  had  her  posts  on  each  side  of 
the  lakes,  and  at  Detroit,  at  Mackinaw,  at  Kaska: '  la,  and  at 
New  Orleans.  Of  the  North  American  continent,  the  French 
claimed,  and  seemed  to  possess,  twenty  parts  in  twenty-live, 
leaving  four  only  to  Spain,  and  but  one  to  Britain.  In  Eu- 
rope, Russia  had  been  evoked  to  be  the  arbiter  of  Germany ; 
Minorca  was  lost ;  for  Hanover,  Cumberland  had  acceded  to  a 
shameful  treaty  of  neutrality.  The  government  of  the  Eng- 
lish aristocracy  paralyzed  the  immense  energies  of  the  British 
empu'e. 

And  yet  sentence  had  been  passed  upon  feudal  monarchy, 
whose  day  of  judgment  the  enthusiast  Swedenborg  had  fore- 
told. The  English  aristocracy,  being  defeated,  summoned  to 
their  aid  not,  indeed,  the  i-ule  of  the  people,  but  at  least  the 
favor  of  the  people.  The  first  English  minister  named  by 
parliamentary  influence  was  Shaftesbury ;  the  first  named  l)y 
popular  influence  was  the  elder  William  Pitt.  A  private 
man,  in  middle  life,  -with  no  fortune,  with  no  party,  with  no 
strong  family  connections,  having  few  votes  under  his  sway  in 
the  house  of  commons,  and  })erhaps  not  one  in  the  house  of 


1757.     THE  OLD   WHIGS  CANNOT  CONQUER  CANADA.      469 

lords ;  a  feeble  valetudinarian,  shunning  pleasure  and  society, 
haughty  and  retired,  and  half  his  time  disabled  by  hereditary 
gout-was  now  the  hope  of  the  English  world.     Assuming 
the  direction  of  the  war,  he  roused  the  states  of  Protestant 
ism  to  wage  a  war  for  mastery  against  the  despotic  monarchy 
and  the  mstitutions  of  the  miJdle  ages,  and  to  secure  to  hii- 
mamty  its  futurity  of  freedom.     Protestantism  is  not  human- 
ity;  its  name  implies  a  party  struggling  to  throw  off  burdens 
o±  the  past,  and  ceasing  to  be  a  renovating  principle  when  its 
protest  shall  have  succeeded.     It  was  now  for  the  last  time,  as 
a  political  element,  summoned  to  appear  upon  the  theatre  of 
the  nations,  to  control  their  alliances,  and  to  perfect  its  tri- 
umph by  leaving  no  occasion  for  its  reappearance  in  arms 
Its  iinal,  victorious  struggle  was  the  forerunner  of  a  new  civ- 
ilization ;  its  last  war  was  first  in  the  series  of  the  wars  of  revo- 
lution that  founded  for  the  world  of  mankind  the  life  of  the 
nation  and  the  power  of  the  people. 


|i 


If  I  ■ ;' 


|i 


I 


f   •  1 


Iff 


470     OONQDEST  or  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    av.  i. 


OH.  XII. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


m  !'r 


',   I 


in 


ij  .1 


'C  'I  !• 


li ;  ill      ' 


THE  CATHOLIC   POWEKS   OF  THE  MmDLE  AGE  AGAIN9T  THE  NEW 
PR0TE8rANT   POWEKS.       WILLIAM   PITt's   lONISTRY. 

1757. 

"  The  orator  is  vastly  well  provided  for,"  thought  Bedford, 
in  1746,  on  the  appointment  of  William  Pitt  to  a  subordinate 
office  of  no  political  influence.  "  I  assure  your  grace  of  my 
warmest  gratitude,"  wi'ote  Pitt  himself,  in  1750,  to  Newcastle, 
who  falsely  pretended  to  have  spoken  favorably  of  him  to  the 
king ;  and  now,  in  defiance  of  Bedford  and  Newcastle,  and  the 
antipathy  of  the  king,  he  is  become  the  foremost  man  in  Eng- 
land, received  into  the  ministry  as  its  "guide,"  because  he 
was  the  choice  of  the  people,  and  alone  by  his  greatness  of 
soul  and  commanding  eloquence  could  restore  the  state. 

On  his  dismissal  in  April,  no  man  had  the  hardihood  to 
accept  his  place.  A  storm  of  indignation  burst  from  the 
nation.  To  Pitt,  and  to  Legge,  who  with  Pitt  had  opposed 
the  Russian  treaty,  London  and  other  cities  voted  its  freedom ; 
unexampled  discontent  pervaded  the  country.  Newcastle, 
whose  pusillanimity  exceeded  his  vanity,  dared  not  attempt 
forming  a  ministry ;  and,  l)y  declining  to  do  so,  renewed  his 
confession  that  the  government  of  Great  Britain  could  no 
longer  be  administered  by  a  party  which  had  for  its  principle 
to  fight  up  alike  against  the  king  and  against  the  people. 
Granville  would  have  infused  his  jovial  intrepidity  into  the 
junto  of  Fox;  but  Fox  was  desponding.  Bedford  had  his 
scheme,  which  he  employed  Rigby  to  establish ;  and,  when  it 
proved  impracticable,  grew  angry,  and  withdrew  to  "Wobuni 
Abbey.  In  the  midst  of  war,  the  country  w\is  left  to  anarchy. 
"We  ai'e  undone,"  said  Chesterfield:  "at  home,  by  our  in- 


r'^i 


I. ;  OH.  XII. 


THE   NEW 
3Y. 


1757.         CATUOLIO  POWERS  AGAINST  TROTESTANT.         471 

creasing  expenses ;  abroad,  by  ill-luck  and  incapacity."  The 
elector  of  Ilesse-Cassel  and  the  duke  of  Brunswick,  destitute  of 
the  common  honesty  of  hirelings,  invited  bids  from  the  ene- 
mies  of  their  lavish  employer;  the  king  of  Pnissia,  Britain's 
only  ally,  seemed  overwhelmed,  Hanover  reduced,  and  the 
French  were  maaters  in  America.  So  dark  an  hour  England 
had  not  kno'vn  during  the  century. 

But  the  mind  of  Pitt  always  inclined  to  hope.     "I  am 
sure,"  said  he  to  the  duke  of  Devonshire,  "  I  can  save  this 
country,  and  nobody  else  can."     For  eleven  weeks   England 
was  without  a  ministry,  so  long  was  the  agony,  so  desperate 
the  resistance,  so  reluctant  the  sun-ender.     At  last,  the  Idng 
fmd  the  aristocracy  were  compelled  to  accept  the  man  whom 
the  nation  tnisted  and  loved.     Made  wise  by  experience,  and 
relying  on  his  own  vigor  of  will  for  a  controlling  influence,  he 
formed  a  ministry  from  many  factions.     xVgain  Lord  Anson, 
Ilardwicke's  son-in-law,  took  the  highest  seat  at  the  board  of 
the  admiralty.     Fox,  who  had  children,  and  had  wasted  his 
fortime,  accepted  the  place  of  paymaster,  which  the  war  made 
enormously  lucrative.    Newcastle  had  promised  Halifax  a  new 
office  as  third  secretary  of  state  for  the  colonies.     "  I  did  not 
speak  about  it,"  was  the  duke's  apology  to  him ;  "  Pitt  looked 
so  much^  out  of  humor,  I  dared  not "     The  disappointed  man 
railed  ^nthout  measure  at  the  knavery  and  cowardice  of  New- 
castle ;  but  Pitt  reconciled  him  by  leaving  him  his  old  post  in 
the  board  of  trade,  with  all  its  patronage,  adding  the  dignity 
of  a  cabinet  councillor.     Henley,  afterward  Lord  Northing- 
ton,  became  lord  chancellor,  opening  the  way  for  Sir  Charles 
Pratt  to  be  made  attorney-general;   and  George   Grenville, 
though  with  rankling  hatred  of  his  brother-in-law  for  not  be- 
stowing on  him  the  still  moi-e  lucrative  place  of  paymaster, 
took  the  treasuryship  of  the  navy.     The  illustrious  statesman 
himself,  the  ablest  his  coimtry  had  seen  since  Cromwell,  being 
resolved  -n  making  England  the  greatest  nation  in  the  worid 
and  himself  its  greatest  minister,  took  the  seals  of  the  southern 
department  with  the  conduct  of  the  war  in  all  parts  of  the 
globe,  leaving  to  Newcastle  the  first  seat  at  the  treasury  board 
with  the  dis]iosition  of  bishoprics,  petty  offices,  and  contracts, 
and  the  management  of  "  all  the  classes  of  venality."     At  that 


1|      •     ! 


n 


472     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  OANADA.     ep.  i. 


on.  xir. 


\W  !  ¥ 


'i 


M 


1  I    ! 


( t  I     i    ;i       i' 


U-M 


day,  the  good-will  of  the  ponp;!^  was,  in  England,  tho  most  im- 
certain  tunuro  of  office,  for  they  luid  no  strength  in  parlia- 
ment; their  favorite  held  jxjwer  at  the  sntTerance  of  the  aris- 
tocracy. "I  borrow,"  wiid  Pitt,  "the  duke  of  Newciistle's 
majority  to  carry  on  the  public  business." 

The  new  ministry  kissed  hands  early  in  July  1757.  "  Sire  " 
said  the  secretary,  "  give  me  your  confidence,  and  I  will  de- 
serve it."  "Deserve  my  coniidcnce,"  replied  the  king,  "and 
you  shall  have  it;"  and  kept  his  word.  All  England  ap- 
plauded the  great  connnoner's  elevation.  John  "Wilkes,  theii 
just  elected  mend)er  of  parliament,  promised  "  steady  support 
to  the  ablest  minister,  as  well  as  the  iirst  character,  of  the  age." 
Bearing  a  message  from  Leicester  house,  "  Tluudc  God,"  wrote 
Bute,  "  I  see  you  in  office.  If  even  the  wreck  of  this  crown 
can  be  preserved  to  our  amiable  young  prince,  it  is  to  your 
abilities  he  must  owe  it." 

But  Pitt  knew  himself  called  to  the  ministry  neither  by 
the  king,  nor  by  the   parliament  of  the  aristocracy,  nor  by 
Leicester  house,  but  "by  the  voice  of  the  peopb;"  and  the 
affairs  of  the  empire  were  now  directed  by  a  man  who  had  de- 
manded for  his  countrymen  an  uncorrupted  representation,  a 
prevailing  influence  in  designating  ministers,  and  "  a  supreme 
service  "  from  the  king.    Assuming  power,  he  bent  all  factions 
to  his  authoritative  will,  and  made  "  a  venal  age  unanimous." 
The  energy  of  his  mind  was  the  spring  of  his  eloquence.     His 
presence  was  inspiration;   he  himself  was  greater  than  his 
speeches.     Others  have  uttered  thoughts  of  beauty  and  pas- 
sion, of  patriotism  and  courage :  none  by  words  accomplished 
deeds  like  him.    His  voice  resounded  throughout  the  world, 
impelling  the  servants  of  the  British  state  to  achievements 
of  glory  on  the  St.  Lawrence  and  along  the  Ganges.     Ani- 
mated by  his  genius,  a  corporation  for  trade  did  what  Eonie 
had  not  dreamed  of ;  and  a  British  merchant's  clerk  achieved 
conquests  as  rapidly  as  other  men  make  journeys,  resting  his 
foot  in  permanent  triumph  where  Alexander  of  Maeedon  had 
faltered.     Ruling  with  unbounded  authority  the  millions  of 
free  minds  whose  native  tongue  was  his  own,  with  but  one 
considerable  ally  on  the  European  continent,  with  no  resources 
in  America  but  from  the  good-will  of  the  colonies,  he  led  forth 


'•  ».;    OFT.  XI  r. 

Hi  most  un. 
t  in  parlia- 
of  tlie  aris- 
S'ewciistles 

r.  "Sire," 
I  ^v'ill  de- 
<in^,  "  and 
ngland  ap- 
ilkos,  tlieii 
dy  support 
if  tlio  age." 
od,"  wrote 
this  crown 
is  to  your 

neither  by 
!y,  nor  by 
"  and  the 
ho  liad  de- 
entation,  a 
a  supreme 
ill  factions 
lanimous." 
;nce.  His 
'  than  his 
i  and  pas- 
oraplished 
ihe  world, 
ievements 
^es.  Ani- 
hat  Rome 
c  achieved 
•esting  his 
jedon  had 
lillions  of 
I  but  one 
resources 
I  led  forth 


17«7. 


CATIIOIJC  POWERS  AGAINST  PUOTESTANT. 


473 

the  England  which  had  planted  popular  fn-edom  alor.g  the 
western  shore  ot  the  Atlantic,  tbo  England  which  was  still  the 
model  of  liberty  to  encounter  the  deHpoti.ms  of  Catholic  Eu- 
rope  and  defen<  "the  connnon  cause"  against  what  he  called 
the  nos  powerful  an<l  niahgnant  confederacy  that  over  threat- 
ened  the  nidependence  (;f  mankind." 

The  contest  raged  in  l,oth  hemispheres.  The  American 
question  wa. :  Shall  the  continued  colonization  of  North  An^ 
lea  be  made  under  the  auspices  of  English  Protestantism  and 
popuhu^  hberfy,  or  of  the  legitimacy  of  France  in  its  connec 
.on  with  Roman  Catholic  ( "hristianity  ?  The  question  of  tJie 
European  c^ontnient  was:  Shall  a  Protestant  revolutionary  kin..- 
dom,  like  Prussia,  be  permitted  to  grow  strong  within  its  heart^? 

wrt't  I?  '''r'y\''  "^*^^-^"^g  ^^^^na,  the  question 
waB._  Shall  the  reformation,  developed  to  the  fuhiess  of  free 
inqmry,  succeed  in  its  protest  against  the  middle  age  ? 

The  war  that  closed  in  1748  had  been  a  mere  scramble  for 
advantages,  and  wa.  sterile  of  results;  the  present  conflict, 
which  was  to  prove  a  seven  years'  war,  was  an  encounter  of 
reform  against  the  unreformed ;  and  all  the  predilections  or 
personal  antipathies  of  sovereigns  and  ministers  could  not  pre- 
vent the  alliances,  collisions,  and  results  necessary  to  make  it 
80.  (xeorge  II  who  was  sovereign  of  Hanover,  in  September 
17oo  contracted  with  Russia  for  the  defence  of  that  electorate; 
but  Russia,  which  was  neither  Cathohc  nor  Protestant,  tolerant 

^to^' M"'f  "^  ^"'""^  *'^^'^"*^^'"  ^^  government,  passed 
atemateyfrom  one  camp  to  the  other.  England,  the  most 
beral  Irotostant  kingdom,  had  cherished  intimate  relatione 
with  Austria,  the  most  legitimate  Catholic  power;  and,  to 
strengthen  the  connection,  had  scattered  bribes  with  o^en 
hands  to  Mayence  Cologne,  Bavaria,  and  the  count  palatine^  to 
elect  Joseph  II.  king  of  the  Romans.  Yet  Austria  was  sepa- 
mtng  Itself  from  its  old  ally,  and  fonning  a  confederacy  of  the 
Catholic  powers  ;  while  George  II.  was  driven  to  leaif  on  his 
nephew,  Frederic,  whom  he  disliked. 

A  deep  but  perhaps  unconscious  conviction  of  approach- 
mg  decrepitude  bound  together  the  legitimate  Catholic  sov- 
ereigns. In  all  Europe  there  was  a  striving  after  reform.  Men 
were  grown  weary  of  the  superstition^  of  the  middle  age  ;  of 


j 
•  !;'f 


i:  ] 


m 


w: 


474     CONQIKST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,     ep.  i.  ; 


oil.  xit. 


idlera  an.!  beggars,  Hholtoring  thornselves  in  fnnotiiaries  •  of 
hoj)c's  of  [)rc'sent  hnprovuineiit  HuppresHcd  Ity  tliu  terrin'H  of 
hell  and  jjurgatory ;  tlio  C(nintlL'88  moiikn  and  jmosts,  w'hoHo 
VOW8  of  celibacy  tempted  to  licentiouHness.  Tlio  lovers  and 
upholders  of  the  paHt  desired  a  union  among  the  goveni-nents 
that  rested  n[>()n  mediieval  traditions.  For  years  had  it  been 
whispered  that  the  house  of  Austria  should  unite  itself  tinuly 
with  the  house  of  Hourbon ;  and  now  the  Kmpress  Maria 
Theresa,  herself  a  hereditary  queen,  a  wife  and  a  mother,  re- 
ligious even  to  bigotry,  courted  by  a  gift  the  Marchioness  de 
Pompadour,  who,  under  the  guidance  of  Jesuits,  gladly  took 
up  the  '^'hcc  of  mediating  the  alliance.  Kannitz,  the  minister 
who  concealed  political  wagacity  and  an  inflexible  will  under 
the  senddancc  of  luxurious  ease  won  favor  as  Austria's  am- 
bassador at  the  court  of  Versailles  by  his  affectations  and  his 
prodigal  expense.  And  in  May  1756,  that  is,  in  the  two  hun- 
dred and  eightieth  ycnr  of  the  jealous  strife  between  the  houses 
of  Ilapsburg  and  of  Capet,  Fi-ance  and  Austria  put  aside  their 
ancient  rivalry,  and  as  exclusive  CVitholics  joined  to  support 
the  Europe  of  the  middle  age  with  its  legitimate  despotisms, 
its  aristocracies,  and  its  church,  to  the  rain  of  the  Idngdora  of 
Prassia  and  the  dismemberment  of  Gormany. 

Among  the  rulers  of  the  European  continent,  Frederic, 
with  Imt  four  millions  of  subjectb,  stood  forth  alone,  "  the  un- 
shaken biilwark  of  Protestantism  and  freedom  of  thousrht." 
His  Ivingdom  itself  was  the  offspring  of  the  reformation,  in 
its  origin  revolutionary  and  Protestant.  ITis  fatlier — whose 
palace  life  was  conducted  with  the  economy  and  simplicity  of 
the  German  middle  class ;  at  whose  evening  entertainments  a 
wooden  chair,  a  pipe,  and  a  mug  of  beer  were  placed  for  each 
of  the  guests  that  assembled  to  discuss  politics  with  tlieir 
prince ;  harsh  as  a  parent,  severe  as  a  master,  despotic  as  a 
sovereign — received  with  scrupulous  piety  every  article  of  the 
reformed  creed.  His  son,  who  inherited  an  accunndated  treas- 
ure and  the  best  army  in  F  ope,  publicly  declared  his  opinion 
that;  "  politically  considered,  .  'rotestantism  was  the  most  desira- 
ble religion ; "  that  "  his  royal  <  lectoral  house,  without  one  ex- 
ample of  apostasy,  had  professed  it  for  centuries."  As  the 
contest  advanced,  Clement  XHl.  commemorated  an  Austrian 


1757.        OATFIOLro  I'OVVERfl   AGAINST  PROTESTANT.         475 

victory  over  Pnissia  by  the  present  of  a  consecrated  cap  and 
sword  ;  wlnle,  in  tlie  weekly  concerts  for  pmytT  in  New  En<r- 
und,  petitions  went  np  for  tl.o  Prussian  Inro  "  who  had  drawn 
his  sword  m  the  cause  of  reh-.irions  liberty,  of  the  Protestant 
iiiterest,  and  the  liberties  of  Kuropo."  "His  victories,"  said 
Mayhew,  of  Boston,  "  are  our  own." 

The  refonnation  was  an  expression  of  the  right  of  the  hu- 
man intellect  to  freedom.     The  same  principle  was  active  in 
1^  ranee,  where  philosophy  panted  for  Uln^rty  ;  where  Massillou 
had  hinted  that  kings  an,  ch.wen  for  the  welfare  of  the  people 
and  \oltaire  had  marshalled  the  men  of  lette.-s  against  priest- 
craft.^   Monarchy  itself  was  losing  its  sanctity.    The  Bourbons 
had  risen  to  the  throne  through  the  frank  and  generous  Henry 
IV.,  who,  in  the  sports  of  childliood,  played  barefoot  and  l)are- 
hoaded  with  the  peasant  b.n     on  the  mountains  of  Beam 
The  cradle  of  Louis  XV.  was  rocked  in  the  pestilent  atmos- 
phere of  the  regency ;  his  tutor,  when  from  the  palace-win- 
dows he  pointed  out  the  multitudes,  had  said  to  the  royal 
child:  "Sire,  this  i^eople  is  yours ;"  and,  as  he  grow  old  in 
profligate  sensuality,  ho  joined  the  mechanism  of  superstition 
with  the  maxims  of  absolutism,  mitigating  his  dread  of  hell  by 
he  behet  that  Heaven  is  indulgent  to  the  licentiousness  of 
kings  who  maintain  the   church  by  the  sword.     In  France 
therefore,  there  was  no  alliance  between  the  government  and 
liberal  opinion  ;  and  that  opinion  migrated  from  Versailles  to 
the  court  of  Prussia.     The  renovating  intelligence  of  France 
declared  against  Louis  XV.,  and,  awaiting  a  better  summons 
tor  Its  perfect  sympathy,  saw  in  Frederic  the  present  hero  of 
ight  and  reason.     Thus  the  subtle  and  pervading  influence  of 
the  inquisitive  mind  of  France  was  arrayed  with  England 
Prussia,  and  America-that  is,  with  Protestantism,  philosophic 
freedom,  and  the  nascent  democracy,  in  their  struggle  with  the 
conspiracy  of  European  prejudice  and  legitimacy,  of  priestcraft 
and  despotism. 

The  centre  of  that  conspiracy  was  the  empress  of  Austria 
witli  the  apostate  elector  of  Saxony,  who  was  king  of  Poland 
Aware  of  the  forming  combination,  Frederic  resolved  to  a*  ick 
His  enemies  before  they  were  prepared  ;  and,  in  August  1756, 
lie  invaded  Saxony,  took  Dresden,  blockaded  the  doctor's  army 


476     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  xii. 


'•s: 


I   li. 


i  I 


at  Pirna,  gained  a  victory  over  tlie  imperial  forces  thst  were 
advancing  for  its  relief,  and  closed  the  campaign  in  the  middle 
of  October,  by  compelling  it  to  capitulate.  In  the  following 
winter,  the  alliances  against  him  were  completed  ;  and  not 
Saxony  only,  and  Austria,  Avith  Hungary,  but  the  German  em- 
pire, half  the  German  states  ;  Russia,  not  from  motives  of 
public  ]K)licy,  but  from  a  woman's  caprice ;  Sweden,  subservi- 
ent to  the  Catholic  powers  through  the  degrading  ascendency 
of  its  nobility;  France,  as  the  ally  of  Austria — more  than  half 
the  continent — took  up  arms  against  Frederic,  who  had  no 
allies  in  the  South  or  East  or  I^ortli,  and  in  the  West  none  but 
Hanover  with  Hesse-Cassel  and  Brunswick.  And,  as  for 
Spain,  not  even  the  offer  from  Pitt  of  the  conditional  restitu- 
tion of  Gibraltar  and  the  evacuation  of  all  English  establish- 
ments on  the  Mosquito  Shore  and  in  the  Bay  of  Honduras,  nor 
any  consideration  whatever,  could  move  the  Catholic  monarch 
"  to  draw  the  sword  in  favor  of  heretics." 

As  spring  opened,  Frederic  hastened  to  meet  the  Austrian 
forces  in  Bohemia.  They  retired,  mider  the  command  of 
Charles  of  Lorraine,  abandoning  well-stored  magazines ;  and, 
in  May  1757,  for  the  preservation  of  Prague,  risked  a  battle 
under  its  walls.  After  terrible  caniage,  the  victory  remained 
with  Frederic,  who  at  once  framed  the  most  colossal  design 
that  ever  entered  the  mind  of  a  soldier ;  to  execute  against 
Austria  a  series  of  measures  like  those  against  Saxony  at  I'ima, 
to  besiege  Prague  and  compel  Charles  of  Lorraine  to  surren- 
der. But  the  cautious  Daun,  a  man  of  high  birth,  esteemed  by 
the  empress  queen  and  beloved  by  the  Catholic  church,  pressed 
slowly  forward  to  raise  the  siege.  Leaving  a  part  of  his  army 
before  Prague.  Frederic  went  forth  with  the  rest  to  attack  the 
Ausrian  commander;  and,  on  the  eighteenth  of  June,  at- 
tempted to  storm  his  intrenchments  on  the  heights  of  Cohn. 
The  brave  Prussian  battalions  were  repelled  with  disastrous 
loss,  and  left  Frederic  almost  unattended.  "  Will  you  carry 
the  battery  alone?"  demanded  one  of  his  lieutenants;  on 
which  the  hero  rode  cahuly  toward  the  left  wing  and  ordered 
a  reti'eat. 

The  refined  but  feeble  August  William,  prince  of  Prussia, 
had  remained  at  Pra<2:ue.     "  All  men  are  children  of  one  fa= 


iraa, 


1757.        CATHOLIC  POWERS  AGAINST  PROTESTANT.         477 

ther:"  thus  Frederic  had  once  reproved  his  pride  of  birth- 
"all  are  members  of  one  family,  and,  for  all  your  pride,  are  of 
equal  birth  and  of  the  same  blood.    Would  you  stand  above 
them  ?    Then  excel  them  in  humanity,  gentleness,  and  virtue  " 
At  heart  opposed  to  the  cause  of  mankind,  the  prince  had  from 
the  first  m-ged  his  brother  to  avoid  the  -.var ;  and  at  this  time 
when  drops  of  bitterness  were  falling  thickly  into  the  hero's 
cup,  he  broke  out  into  pusillanimous  complaints,  advising  a 
shameful  peace  l)y  concession  to  Austria.    But  Frederic's  power 
was  now  first  to  appear:  as  victory  fell  away  from  him,  he 
stood  alone  before  his  fellow-men,  in  unconquerable  greatness 
liaising  the  siege  of  Prague,  he  conducted  the  retreat  of 
one  division  of  his  army  into  Saxony,  without  loss;  the  other 
the  prince  of  Pmssia  led  in  a  manner  contrary  to  the  rules  of 
war  and  to  common  sense,  and  more  disastrous  than  the  loss  of 
a  pitched  battle.     Frederic  censured  the  dereliction  harshly  • 
in  that  day  of  disaster  he  would  not  tolerate  a  failure  of  dutv' 
even  in  the  heir  to  the  throne. 

The  increasing  dangers  became  terrible.     "  I  am  resolved  " 
wrote  Frederic,  in  July,   "to  save  my  country  or  perish'" 
Co  m  became  the  war-cry  of  French  and  Russians,  of  Swedes 
and  imperialists ;  Russians  invaded  his  dominions  on  the  east  • 
Swedes  from  the  North  threatened  Pomerania  and  Beriin;  a 
vast  army  of  the  French  was  concentrating  itself  at  Erfurt  for 
the  recovery  of  Saxony;  while  Austria,  recruited  by  Bavaria 
and  VV^urttml)urg,  was  conquering  Silesia.     "The  Pnis'^ians 
will  win   no  more   victories,"  wrote  the   queen  of  Poland 
Death  at  this  moment  took  from  Frederic  his  mother  whom 
10  loved  most  tenderly.     A  few  friends  remained  faithful  to 
am,  cheering  him  by  their  coiTespondence.    "  Oh,  that  Heaven 
had  heaped  all  ills  on  me  alone!"  said  his  affectionate  sister- 
1  would  have  borne  them  with  finnness."     To  the  kin<r  of 
England  he  confessed  his  difiicultics,  and  that  he  had  nelriy 
all  Europe  in  arms  against  him.     "  I  can  f  uniish  you  no  help  " 
answered  George  II.,  and  sought  neutrality  for  Hanover.       ' 
In  iVugust,  having  vainly  attempted  to  engage  the  enemy 
ni  Silesia  in  a  pitched  battle,  Frederic  1     aired  to  the  West,  to 
encounter  the  united  army  of  the  imperialists  and  French.    '"  I 
can  leave  you  no  larger  garrison,"  was  his  message  to  Fink  at 


KM 


.Hi 


, 


;    I 


■ 


478     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  cii.  xu. 

Dresden  ;  "  but  be  of  good  cheer ;  to  keep  the  city  will  do  you 
vast  honor."  On  his  way  he  learns  that  the  Austrians  have 
won  a  victory  over  Winterfeld  and  Bevern,  his  generals  in 
Silesia ;  that  Winterfeld  had  fallen ;  that  Bevern  had  retreated 
to  the  lake  near  Breslau,  and  was  opposed  by  the  Austrians  at 
Lissa.  On  the  eighth  of  September,  the  day  after  the  great 
disaster  in  Silesia,  the  duke  of  Cumberland,  having  been  de- 
.  feated  and  compelled  to  retire,  signed  for  his  army  and  for 
Hanover  a  convention  of  neutrality.  Voltaire  advised  Fred- 
eric to  imitate  Cumberland.  "  If  every  string  breaks,"  wrote 
Frederic  to  lerdinand  of  Brunswick,  "throw  yourseK  into 
Magdeburg.  Situated  as  we  are,  we  must  persuade  ourselves 
that  one  of  us  is  worth  four  others."  Morning  dawned  on  new 
miseries ;  night  came  without  a  respite  to  liis  cares.  He  spoke 
serenely  of  the  path  to  eternal  rest,  and  his  own  resolve  to  live 
and  die  free,  "O  my  beloved  people !'' he  exclaimed,  "  my 
wishes  live  but  for  you;  to  you  belongs  every  drop  of  my 
blood,  and  from  my  heart  I  would  gladly  give  my  life  for  my 
country."  And,  reproving  the  meanness  of  spirit  of  Voltaire, 
"  I  am  a  man,"  he  wrote,  in  October,  in  the  moment  of  intens- 
est  danger;  "born,  therefore,  to  suffer;  to  the  rigor  of  destiny 
I  oppos"  my  own  constancy ;  menaced  with  shipwreck,  I  will 
breast  the  tempest,  and  think  and  live  and  die  as  a  sovereign." 
In  a  week  Berlin  was  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies, 

When,  on  the  fourth  of  November,  after  various  changes 
of  position,  the  king  of  Prassia,  with  but  twenty-one  thousand 
six  hundred  men,  resumed  his  encampment  on  tlie  heights  of 
Eossbach,  the  Prince  C-^  Eohan  Soubise,  who  commanded  the 
French  and  imperial  army  of  more  than  sixty-four  thousand, 
was  sure  of  compelling  him  to  surrender.  On  tlie  morning  of 
the  fifth,  the  combined  forces  marched  in  flank  to  cut  off  Lis 
retreat.  From  the  battlements  of  the  old  Cc.stle  of  Eossbach, 
Frederic  gazed  on  their  movement,  at  a  glance  penetrated  their 
design,  and,  obeying  the  flush  of  his  exulting  mind,  he  on  the 
instant  made  his  dispositions  for  an  attack.  "  Forward ! "  he 
cried,  at  half-past  two ;  at  three,  not  a  Prussian  remained  in 
the  village.  He  seemed  to  retreat  toward  Merseburg;  but, 
concealed  by  the  high  land  of  Eeichertswerbeu,  tlie  chivalrous 
Seidlitz,  with  the  Prussian  cavalry,  having  turned  the  right  of 


%■     H 


1757.       OATHOUO  POWERS  AGAINST  PROTESTANT.         479 

the  enemy,  planted  his  cannon  on  an  eminence.  Thron-h  the 
low  ground  beneath  him  they  were  marching  in  columns  in 
eager  haste  then,  cavalry  in  front  and  at  a  distance  from  their 
infantry.  A  moment's  delay,  an  inch  of  ground  gained,  and 
they  would  have  come  into  line.  But  Seidlitz  and  his  ca-alry 
on  their  right,  eight  battalions  of  infantry  on  their  left,  with 
orders  precise  and  exactly  executed,  bore  down  impetuously 
on  the  cumbrous  columns,  and  routed  them  before  they  could 
form  and  even  before  the  larger  part  of  the  Prussian  infantry 
could  fire  a  shot.  That  victory  at  Eossbach  gave  to  FrusZ 
the  consciousness  of  being  a  nation. 

To  his  minister  Frederic  sent  word  of  this  beginning  of 
success ;  but  far  "more  was  necessary."    He  had  but  obtafned 
freedom  to  seek   new   dangers;    and,   hastening    to   relieve 
Schweidmtz,  he  vvi-ote  to  a  friend:  "This,  for  me,  has  been  a 
jearoi  hon-or;  to  save  the  state,  I  dare  the  impossible."    But 
already  Schweidmtz  had  surrendered.     On  the  twenty-second 
of  ^ovember,  Prince  Bevern  was  surprised  and  taken  p'rLon"' 
with  a  loss  of  eight  thousand  men.     His  successor  in  the  com^ 
mand  retreated  to  Glogau.    On  the  twenty-fourth,  Breslau  was 
basely  given  up,  and  nearly  all  its  garrison  entered  the  Aus- 
mn    service.     Silesia   seemed   restored    to   Maria    Theresa 
Does  hope  expire,"  s^iid  Frederic,  "  the  strong  man  must  stand 
torth  m  his  strength.' 

Not  till  the  second  day  of  December  did  the  di-ooping  army 
from  Glogan  join  the  khig.     Every  power  was  exerted  to  re- 
vive their  confidence.     By  degrees  they  catch  something  of  his 
mspiring  resoluteness ;  they  share  the  spirit  and  the  daring  of 
tlie  victors  of  Rossbach;  they  burn  to  efface  their  omi  io-no- 
mmy      let  the  Austrian  army  of  sixty  thousand  men,  uSder 
_haries  of  Lorrame  and  Marshal  Daun,  veteran  troops  and  more 
ban  double  in  number  to  the  Prussians,  were  advancing,  as  if 
o  crush  them  and  end  the  war.     "The  marquis  of  Branden- 
burg,   said  Voltaire,  "will  lose  his  hereditary  estates,  as  well 
as  those  which  he  has  won  by  conquest." 

Assembling  his  principal  officers  beneath  a  beech-tree,  be- 
Uveen  ^eumarkt  and  Leuthen,  Frederic  addressed  them  with  a 
gush  of  eloquence:  "  Wliile  I  was  restraining  the  French  and 
imperialists,  Charies  of  Lorraine  has  succeeded  in  conquering 


■ 


■■:^SBr7^' 


480     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA. 


El'.  I. ;  oir.  xir. 


4  I 


i.l 


h 


Schweidiutz,  repulsing  Prince  Bevern,  mastering  Breslau.    A 
part  of  Silesia,  my  capital,  my  stores  of  war,  are  lost;  my  dis- 
asters would  be  extreme  had  I  not  a  boundless  trust  in  your 
courage,  iirmness,  and  love  of  country.     There  is  not  one  of 
you  but  lias  distinguished  himself  by  some  great  and  honorable 
deed.    The  moment  for  courage  has  come.    Listen,  then  :  I  am 
resolved,  against  all  rules  of  the  art  of  Avar,  to  attack  the  nearly 
threefold  stronger  army  of  Chai-les  of  Lorraine,  wherever  I 
may  iind  it.    There  is  no  question  of  the  number  of  the  enemy, 
nor  of  the  strength  of  their  position ;  we  must  beat  them  or 
all  of  us  iind  our  graves  before  their  batteries.     Thus  I  think, 
thus  I  mean  to  act ;  announce  my  decision  to  all  the  officers  of 
my  army;  prepare  the  privates  for  the  scenes  which  are  at 
hand ;  let  them  know  I  demand  unqualified  obedience.     They 
are  Prussians ;  they  will  not  show  themselves  unworthy  of  the 
name.    Does  any  one  of  you  fear  to  share  all  dangers  with  me, 
he  can  this  day  retire ;  I  never  will  reproach  him."     Then,  as 
the  enthusiasm  kindled  around  him,  he  continued,  with  a  se- 
rene smile :  "  I  know  that  not  one  of  you  will  leave  me.    I 
rely  on  your  true  aid,  and  am  assured  of  victory.    If  I  fall,  the 
country  must  reward  you.     Go,  tell  your  regiments  what  you 
have  heard  from  me."     And  he  added :    "  The  regiment  of 
cavalry  Avhich  shall  not  instantly,  at  the  order,  charge,  shall  be 
dismounted  and  sent  into  garrisons ;  the  battalion  of  infantry 
that  shall  but  falter  shall  lose  its  colors  and  its  swords.    Now 
farewell,  friends ;  soon  we  shall  have  vanquished,  or  we  shall 
see  each  other  no  more." 

On  the  morning  of  December  fifth,  at  half-past  four,  the 
army  ^\as  in  motion,  the  king  in  front,  the  troops  to  warHke 
strains  sinffino; — 

Grant,  Lord,  that  we  may  do  with  might 
That  which  our  hands  shall  find  to  do  ! 
"  With  men  like  these,"  said  Frederic,  "  God  will  give  me  the 
victory." 

The  Austrians  were  animated  by  no  conmion  kindling  im- 
pulse. The  Prussians,  on  that  day,  moved  as  one  being,  en- 
dowed with  intelligence,  and  swayed  by  one  will.  Never  had 
daring  so  combined  with  prudence  as  in  the  arrangements  of 
Frederic.     His  eye  seized  every  advantage  of  place,  and  his 


I'.  I. ;  OH.  xir. 


1757.        OAXnOLIC  POWERS  AGAINST  PROTESTANT.         481 

manceuvrea  were  inspired  by  the  state  of  liis  force  and  the 
cliaracter  of  the  ground.     Tlie  hills  and  the  valleys,  the  copses 
and  the  fallow  land,  the  mists  of  morning  and  the  clear  light 
of  noon,  came  to  meet  his  dispositions,  so  that  nature  seemed 
mstmct  with  the  resolve  to  conspire  with  his  genius.     Never 
had  orders  been  so  executed  as  his  on  that  day ;  and  never  did 
military  genius,  in  its  necessity,  so  summon  invention  to  its 
rescue  from  despair.     His  line  was  formed  to  make  an  acute 
angle  with  that  of  the  Austrians ;  as  he  moved  forward,  his 
left  wing  was  kept   disengaged;    his  right  came  in  contact 
with  the  enemy's  left,  outwinged  it,  and  attacked  it  in  front 
and  flank  ;  the  bodies  which  Lorraine  sent  to  its  support  were 
defeated  successively,  before  they  could  form,  and  were  rolled 
back  in  confused  masses.     Lorraine  was  compelled  to  change 
his  front  for  the  defence  of  Leuthen;  the  victorious  Prussian 
army  advanced  to  continue  the  attack,  now  bringing  its  left 
wing  into  action.     Leuthen  was  carried  by  storm,  and  the 
Austrians  were  driven  to  retreat,  losing  more  than  six  thousand 
in  killed  and  wounded,  more  than    twenty-one  thousand  in 
prisoners.     The  battle,  which  began  at  half-past  one,  was  fin- 
ished at  five.     It  was  the  masterpiece  of  motion  and  decision, 
of  moral  firmness  and  warlike  genius ;  the  greatest  military 
deed,  thus  far,  of  the  century.     That  victory  confirmed  exist- 
ence to  the  country  where  Kant  and  Lessing  were  ciirrying 
free  inquiry  to  the  sources  of  human  knowledge.     The  sol- 
diers knew  how  the  rescue  of  their  nation  hung  on  that  battle  ; 
and,  as  a  grenadier  on  the  field  of  carnage  began  to   sing, 
I'  Thanks  be  to  God,"  the  whole  army,  in  the  darkness  of  even- 
ing, standing  amid  thousands  of  the  dead,  uplifted  the  h>min 
of  praise. 

Daun  fled  into  Bohemia,  leaving  in  Breslau  a  garrison  of 
twenty  thousand  men.  Frederic  astonished  Europe  by  o-ain- 
mg  possession  of  that  city,  reducing  Schweidnitz,  and  recover- 
ing all  Silesia.  The  Eussian  army,  which,  under  Apraxin, 
liad  won  a  victoiy  on  the  north-east,  was  arrested  in  its  move- 
ments by  intrigues  at  home.  Prussia  was  saved.  In  this  ter- 
rible campaign,  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  men  stood 
against  seven  hundred  thousand,  and  had  not  been  conquered, 
vot,  II.— 31 


il 


482   CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    bp.  i.  ■  cu.  xm. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


CONQUEST   OF  LOUISBIIRO  AND  THE  VALLEY  O.    THE  OHIO.      WILL- 

i-VM  Pitt's  ministry  continued. 
1757-1758. 

The  Protestant  nations  compared  Frederic  to  Gustavus 
Adolplius,  as  the  defender  of  the  refonmation  and  of  freedom. 
Witli  a  vigor  of  hope  like  his  own,  Pitt,  who  always  supported 
the  Prussian  king  with  fidelity  and  eight  days  before  the  bat- 
tle of  Rossbach  had  authori-^ed  him  to  place  Ferdinand  of 
Brunswick  at  the  head  of  the  English  army  on  the  continent, 
planned  the  conquest  of  the  colonies  of  France.  Through  the 
under-secretaries,  Franklin  gave  him  advice  on  the  conduct  of 
the  American  war,  criticised  the  measures  proposed  by  others, 
and  enforced  the  conquest  of  Canada. 

In  the  house  of  commons,  Lord  George  Sackville  made  the 
apology  of  Loudoun.  "  Nothing  is  done,  nothing  attempted," 
said  Pitt,  mth  vehement  asperity.  "We  have  lost  all  the 
waters ;  we  have  not  a  boat  on  the  lakes.  Every  door  is  open 
to  France."  Loudoun  was  recalled,  and  added  one  more  to 
the  military  officers  who  advised  the  magisterial  exercise  of 
British  authority  and  voted  in  parliament  to  sustain  it  by  fire 
and  sword. 

Rejectinj^  the  coercive  policy  of  his  predecessors,  Pitt  in- 
vited the  New  England  colonies  and  New  York  and  New 
Jersey,  each  without  limit,  to  raise  as  many  men  as  possible, 
believing  them  "  well  able  to  furnish  at  least  twenty  thousaml," 
for  the  expedition  against  Montreal  and  Quebec ;  while  Penn- 
sylvania and  the  southern  colonies  were  to  aid  in  conquering 
the  ^Yest.  He  assumed  that  England  sliould  provide  anus, 
ammunition,  and  tents ;  he  "  expected  and  required "  nothing 


p.  1. ;  cu.  xiu. 


»niO.      WILL- 


im-ms.  PITT'S  PLAN  OF  OAMPAION.  433 

dlw  "T      T       "  '"P'™'^  ''^  P'-O""*''  *J  «'e  king 

should  "strongly  recommend  to  parliament  to  grant  a  prone! 

compensat.on.'     Moreover,  in  fieeember  ITsr!  ,e  Sed 

he  kmg's  order  that  every  provincial  oiBcer  of  no  highe  ™k 

than  ooloneUhonld  have  equal  command  with  the  British  1 
cordmg  to  tho  date  of  their  respective  commission.  ' 

In  the  midst  of  all  his  cares,  Pitt  sought  new  security  for 
freedom  m  England.  A  bill  was  carried  through  theTol  rf 
commons  extending  the  provisions  for  awardL  the  w^°of 
habeas  corpus  to  all  cases  of  commitment;  and,fvhen  U^law 

coufcrmed  m  his  maxim,  that  « the  lawyera  are  not  to  be  re 
garded  m  questions  of  bbeity." 

His  genius  and  his  respect  for  the  rights  of  the  colonies 

the  West.     The  contributions  of  New  England  exceeded  a 
just  estimato  of  their  ability.    The  thrifty  people  of  Ssa 
chuset  s  dishked  a  funded  debt,  and  avoided  it\y  Latfon 
Their  tax  in  one  year  of  the  war  was,  on  pei«,nal  fstaJe,  t  S^ 
»n  sbUlms.  and  fourpenee  on  the  pound'of  income,  and  on 

pounds  besides  various  excises  and  a  poll-tax  of  nineteen  shil- 
1  mgs  on  every  male  over  sixteen.    Once,  in  1759,  a  colonial 

.Srhl^nT^"^'""'^  '^«^'»"'-'  ^-.tic" 
«v J„'ll^- "f  T' '"'"' '''"'  "°*  ""'"y^  ''Vose  enough  to  cul- 
sa  d  Mo!^    ^  71  "'P''™^ »f  England.    "I  shudder," 

thus  he  appealed  to  the  minister,  "New  France  needs  peac^ 
or  sooner  or  later  it  must  fall,  such  are  the  numbers  ofTe 
Fnghsli,  such  the  difficulty  of  our  receiring  supplies."  The 
Canadian  war-partfes  were  on  the  alert;  but  what 'availed  their 

SI    1   !/        '""""'  "^  ^''"'"^  '^^y-'   *"  inhabitants  of 

of  vlln  ™  T'"",  ''''"^-  'f'^''  """""^  was  almost  bare 
ot  vegetables,  poultry,  sheep,  aud  cattle.    In  the  want  of  bread 


I'.j 


rl 


ii- 


h 


484    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  xm. 


n 


I   '! 


and  beef  and  other  necessaries,  twelve  or  fifteen  Imndred  horses 
were  distributed  for  food.  Artisans  and  day-laborers  became 
too  weak  for  labor. 

On  the  recall  of  Loudoun,  three  several  expeditions  were 
set  in  motion.  Jeffrey  Amherst,  with  James  Wolfe,  wan  to 
join  the  fleet  under  J^oseawen  for  the  recapture  of  touisburg ; 
the  conquest  of  the  Ohio  valley  was  intrusted  to  Forbes ;  and 
against  Tlconderoga  and  Crown  Point,  Abercrombie,  a  friend 
of  Bute,  was  commander-in-chief,  though  Pitt  selected  the 
young  Lord  Howe  to  bo  the  soul  of  the  enterprise. 

To  high  rank  and  great  connections  Lord  Howe  added  a 
capacity  to  discern  ability,  judgment  to  employ  it,  and  readi- 
ness to  adapt  himself  to  the  hardships  of  forest  warfare. 
Wolfe,  then  thirty-one  years  old,  had  been  eighteen  years  in 
the  army ;  was  at  Dettingen  and  Fontenoy,  and  won  laurels 
at  Laffeldt.  Merit  made  him  at  two-and-twenty  a  lieutenant- 
colonel.  He  was  at  once  authoritative  and  humane ;  severe, 
yet  indefatigably  kii.  a  ;  modest,  but  ambitious  and  conscious 
of  ability.  The  brave  soldier  dutifully  loved  and  obeyed  his 
■widowed  mother ;  and  he  aspired  to  happiness  in  domestic  life, 
oven  while  he  kindled  at  the  prospect  of  g:ory  as  "  gunpowder 
at  fire." 

On  the  twenty-eighth  day  of  May  1758,  Amherst,  after  a 
most  unusually  long  passage,  reached  Halifax.  The  fleet  had 
twenty-two  ships  of  the  line  and  fifteen  frigates ;  the  army,  at 
least  ten  thousand  effective  men.  Isaac  Barre,  who  had  lin- 
gered a  subaltern  eleven  years  till  Wolfe  rescued  him  from 
hopeless  obscurity,  served  as  a  major  of  brigade. 

For  six  days  after  the  British  forces,  on  their  way  from 
Halifax  to  Louisburg,  had  entered  Chapeau  Eouge  bay,  the 
surf,  under  a  high  wind,  made  the  rugged  shore  inaccessible, 
and  ga,ve  the  French  time  to  strengthen  and  extend  their  lines. 
The  sea  still  dashed  heavily  when,  before  daybreak,  on  the 
eighth  of  June,  the  troops  disembarked  under  cover  of  a  ran- 
dom fire  from  the  frigates.  Wolfe,  the  third  brigadier,  who 
led  the  first  division,  would  not  allow  a  gun  to  be  fired,  cheered 
thf;  rowers,  and,  on  coming  to  shoal  water,  jumped  into  the 
sea ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  surf  which  broke  several  boats  and 
upset  more,  in  spite  of  the  well-directed  fire  of  the  French,  in 


1768. 


CONQUEST  OF  LOUISBCJRG. 


486 

spite  of  their  breastwork  and  rampart  of  felled  trees  whose 
interwoven  branches  made  a  wall  of  green,  the  English  reached 
the  land,  took  the  batteries,  drove  in  the  French,  and  on  the 
same  day  invested  Louisburg.  At  that  landing,  ..one  waa 
more  gal  ant  than  Richard  Montgomery,  just  one  and-twentv, 
Insh  by  birth,  an  ofticer  in  Wolfe's  brigade.  His  commanded 
honored  him  with  well-deserved  praise  and  promotion  to  a 
lieutenancy. 

On  the  morning  of  the  twelfth,  an  hour  before  dawn, 
WoHe  with  hglit  infantry  and  Ilighlandei.,  took  by  surprise 
he  hght-houso  battery  on  the  north-east  side  of  the  entrance 
to  the  harbor;  the  smaller  works  were  successively  carried, 
bcience,  sufhcient  force,  union  among  tlie  officers,  heroism  per- 
vading manners  and  soldiers,  carried  iov^vuvd  the  siege,  during 
which  Earre  by  his  conduct  secured  the  approbation  of  Am 
herst  and  the  triendship  of  Wolfe.    Boscawen  was  prepared 
to  send  six  English  ships  into  the  harbor.     The  town  of  Louis- 
burg was  already  a  heap  of  ruins ;  for  eight  days  the  French 
officers  and  men  had  had  no  safe  place  for  rest ;  of  their  fiftv- 
two  cannon,  forty  wei^  disabled.    They  had  now  but  five  ships 
of  the  Ime  and  four  frigates.    It  was  time  for  the  Chevalier 
de  Drucour  to  capitulate.     On  the  twenty-seventh  of  Jul- 
the  English  took  possession  of  Louisburg,  and,  as  a  cons'el 
quence,  of  Cape  Breton  and  Prince  Edward's  island.     The 
garrison,  with  the  sailors  and  marines,  in  all  five  thousand  six 
hundred  and  thirty-seven,  were  sent  to  England.      IlaUfax 
being  the  English  naval  station,  Louisburg  was  deserted.    The 
harbor  still  offers  shelter  from  storms;  but  only  a  few  hovels 
mark  the  spot  which  so  much  treasure  was  lavished  to  fortify 
so  much  effort  to  conquer.     Wolfe,  whose  heart  was  in  Eng! 
land,  bore  home  the  love  and  esteem  of  the  amy.     The  tro- 
phies were  deposited  in  the  cathedral  of  St.   Paul's;   the 
j'hurches  gave  thanks;  Boscawen,  himself  a  member  of  par- 
hament,  was  honored  by  a  unanimous  tribute  from  the  house 
of  commons.    New  England,  too,  triumphed;  for  the  pi-aises 
awarded  to  Amherst  and  Wolfe  recalled  tht-   '.aeJj  of  her  own 
sons. 


The  season  was  too  far  advanced  to  attempt  Quebec, 
sides,  a  sudden  message  drew  Amherst  to  Lake  George. 


Be- 


n-i 


m 


HI 


Ui 


1)1  'I" 


480    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.  ;  crt.  xm. 

The  summons  of  Pitt  had  called  into  being  a  numerons  and 
well-eriuii^ped  provincial  army.  Massachusetts,  which  had  upon 
its  alarm  List  more  than  thirty-seven  thousand  men  who  were  by 
law  obliged  in  case  of  an  invasion  to  take  the  field,  had  ten  thou- 
sand of  its  citizens  employed  in  the  public  scivico ;  but  it  k-spt 
its  disbursements  for  the  war  under  the  control  of  its  own  com- 
missioners. Pownall,  its  governor,  complained  of  the  reserva- 
tion as  an  infringement  of  the  prerogative,  predicted  confi- 
dently the  nearness  of  American  inde])endence,  and,  after  vain 
appeals  to  the  local  legislature,  repeated  his  griefs  to  the  lords  of 
trade.  The  board  answered :  "  Unless  some  effectual  remedy 
be  applied  at  a  proper  time,  the  dependence  which  the  colony 
of  Massachusetts  bay  ought  to  have  upon  the  sovereignty  of 
the  crown  will  be  in  great  danger  of  bv^in  -  totdly  lost."  The 
letter  was  sent  without  the  knowledge  of  Pitt,  who  never  in- 
vited a  province  to  the  utmost  employment  of  its  resources, 
with  the  secret  purpose  of  subverting  its  liberties  as  soon  as 
victory  over  a  foreign  foe  should  have  been  achieved  with  its 
co-operation. 

Meantime,  nine  thousand  and  twenty-four  provincials  from 
New  England,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey  assembled  on  the 
shore  of  Lake  George.  There  were  the  six  hundred  New  Eng- 
land rangers,  dressed  like  woodmen,  armed  with  a  firelock  and 
a  hatchet,  under  their  right  arm  a  powder-horn,  a  leather  bag 
for  bullets  at  their  waist,  and  to  each  officer  a  pocket  compass 
as  a  guide  in  the  forests.  There  was  Stark,  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, already  promoted  to  be  a  captain.  There  was  the  gener- 
ous, open-hearted  Israel  Putnam,  now  a  major,  leaving  his  good 
fann  round  which  his  o\vn  hands  had  helped  to  build  the  walls. 
There  were  the  chaplains,  who  preached  to  the  regiments  of 
citizen  soldiers  a  renewal  of  the  days  when  Moses  with  the  rod 
of  God  in  his  hand  sent  Joshua  against  Amalek.  By  the  side 
of  the  provincials  rose  the  tents  of  the  regular  army,  six  thou- 
sand three  hundred  and  sixty-seven  in  number.  Abercrombie 
was  commander-in-chief ;  but  confidence  rested  solely  on  Lord 
Howe. 

On  the  fifth  day  of  July,  the  armament  of  more  than  fifteen 
thousand  men,  the  largest  body  of  European  origin  that  had 
ever  been  assembled  in  America,  struck  their  tents  at  daybrck, 


17B8. 
and  ii 


GREATNESS  OF  MONTCALM. 


487 


hundred  Rinnll  bouts  and  one  hundred  and  tliirty- 
five  whale-boats,  with  artillery  mounted  on  rafts,  embarked  on 
Lake  George;  and,  in  the  evening  light,  lialted  at  Sabbath-day 
''-"^      Long  afterward,  Stark  remembered  that  on  that  nijrht 


Lord  Howe,  reclining  in  his  tent  on  a  bear-skin,  and  l)ent  on 
\vinning  a  iiero's  name,  questioned  him  closely  as  to  the  posi- 
tion  o.''  Ticouderoga  and  the  fittest  mode  of  attacking  it. 

On  tiio  promontory,  where  the  lake  through  an  outlet  less 
than  four  miles  long,  falling  in  that  distance  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  feet,  enters  the  Champlain,  the  French  had 
placed  Fort  Carillon,  having  that  lake  on  its  east,  and  on  the 
south  and  south-west  the  bay  formed  by  the  junction.     On  the 
north  wet  meadows  obstructed  access;   so  that  the  only  ap- 
proach by  land  was  from  the  north-west.     On  that  side,  al)out 
a  half  mile  in  front  of  the  fort,  Montcalm  marked  out  iiis  lines, 
which  began  near  the  meadows  and  followed  the  sinuosities  of 
the  ground  till  they  approached  the  outlet.    This  the  road  from 
Lake  George  to  Ticonderoga  crossed  twice  by  bridges,  between 
which  the  path  was  as  a  chord  to  the  large  arc  made  by  the 
course  of  the  water.     J^ear  the  bridge  at  the  lower  falls,  less 
than  two  miles  from  the  fort,  the  French  had  built  saw-mills, 
on  ground  which  offered  a  strong  militaty  position.     On  the 
first  of  July,  Montcalm  sent  three  regiments  to  occupy  the  head 
of  the  portage,  but  soon  recalled  them.     On  the  morning  of 
the  fifth,  when  a  white  fiag  on  tlie  i  lountains  gave  M-arning  that 
the  English  were  embarked,  a  guard  of  three  pickets  was  sta- 
tioned at  the  landing-place;  and  Trepc^zee,  with  three  hundred 
men,  was  sent  still  farther  forward,  to  watch  the  movements  of 
the  enemv. 

An  hour  before  midnight  the  English  army  was  again  in 
motion,  and  by  nine  the  next  morning  disembarked  on  the  west 
side  of  the  lake,  in  a  cove  sheltered  by  a  point  which  still  keeps 
the  name  of  Lord  Howe.  The  three  French  pickets  precipi- 
tately retired. 

As  the  French  had  burnt  the  bridges,  the  army,  forming  in 
four  columns,  began  its  march  round  the  bend  along  the  west 
side  of  the  outlet,  over  ground  uneven  and  densely  wooded. 
"If  these  people,"  said  Montcalm,  "do  but  give  me  time  to 
gain  the  position  I  have  chosen  on  the  heights  of  Carillon,  I 


I 


l!nl 


488    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ki'.  i.;  en.  xni. 

shall  beat  tlieni."  The  colnmiiH,  lod  l)y  bewildered  p^iides,  bi'<jko 
iiiul  jostled  each  other;  they  had  proceeded  about  two  mileH 
when  the  ri^ht  centre,  where  Lord  Howe  had  coimnand,  Hiid- 
denly  came  upon  the  party  of  Trepeaoe,  who  had  lost  hi«  way 
and  for  twelve  hours  had  been  wandering  in  the  forest.  The 
worn-out  strajjglers,  less  than  three  hundred  in  number,  fought 
bravely.  They  were  soon  overwhelmed ;  but  Lord  Howe,  fore- 
most in  the  skirmish,  was  the  first  to  fall,  expiring  immediate- 
ly. The  grief  of  his  fellow-soldiers  and  the  confusion  that 
followed  his  death  spoke  his  eulogy ;  Massachusetts  raised  his 
monument  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

The  English  passed  the  following  night  under  arms  in  the 
forest.  On  the  morning  of  the  seventh,  Abercrombie  had  no 
better  ])lan  than  to  draw  back  to  the  landing-jjlace. 

Early  the  next  day,  he  sent  Clark,  tho  chief  engineer, 
across  the  outlet  to  reconnoitre  the  French  lines,  which  he  re- 
ported to  be  of  tlimsy  construction,  strong  in  appearance  only. 
Stark,  of  New  ILmipshire,  as  well  as  some  English  officers, 
with  a  keener  eye  and  sounder  judgment,  saw  well-finished 
preparations  (jf  defence;  but  the  general,  apprehending  that 
Montcalm  already  commanded  six  thousand  men,  and  that  Levi 
was  hastening  to  join  him  with  three  thousand  more,  gave 
orders,  without  waiting  for  cannon  to  be  brought  up,  with  guu 
m  hand,  to  storm  the  breastworks  that  very  day.  For  that 
end  a  triple  line  was  formed,  out  of  reach  of  cannon-shot ;  the 
first  consisted,  on  tlie  left,  of  the  rangers ;  in  the  centre,  of  the 
boatmen ;  on  the  right,  of  tlie  light  infantry ;  tlie  second,  of 
provincials,  with  wide  openings  between  their'  regiments ;  the 
third,  of  the  regulars.  Troops  of  ConnccHcut  and  New  J  erscy 
formed  a  rear-gnard.  During  these  arrangements,  Sir  William 
Johnson  arrived  with  four  hundred  and  forty  warriors  of  the 
Six  Nations,  who  gazed  with  inactive  apathy  on  the  white  men 
that  had  come  so  far  to  shed  each  other's  blood. 

On  the  sixth  of  July,  Montcalm  called  in  all  his  i)artics, 
which  anuninted  to  no  more  tlian  two  thousand  eight  hundred 
French  and  four  hundred  and  fifty  Canadians.  Tliat  day,  he 
employed  the  second  battalion  of  Berry  in  strengthening  his 
post.  The  next  day,  his  whole  army  toiled  incredibly,  the 
officers  giving  the  example,  and  planting  the  flags  on  the  breast- 


1758. 


GREATNESS  OF  MONTCALM. 


489 


work.  In  the  evening,  Levi  returned  from  an  intended  ex- 
pedition jiguinst  the  Mohawks,  brin*?in<r  four  liundrod  ehosen 
men;  and  at  night  ail  l)ivoiiacked  along  the  intrenchment. 
On  the  moniing  of  the  eiglith,  the  druTus  of  the  French  beat 
to  anns,  that  tlie  troops,  now  thirty-six  hundred  and  fifty  in 
numl)er,  might  know  tlieir  stations ;  and  tlien,  witiiout  pausing 
to  return  the  tire  of  musketry  from  Englisli  light  troops  on  the 
declivities  of  the  mountain,  they  resumed  their  work.  The 
right  of  their  defences  rested  on  a  hillock,  from  which  the 
plain  between  the  lines  and  the  lake  was  to  have  been  flanked 
hy  four  pieces  of  cannon,  but  the  battery  could  not  be  finished; 
the  left  extended  to  a  scarp  surmounted  by  an  abattis.  For  a 
hundred  yards  in  front  of  the  intennediate  breaiitwork,  which 
consisted  of  piles  of  logs,  the  approach  was  obstructed  l)y  felled 
trees  with  their  branches  pointing  outward,  stumps,  and  rub- 
bish of  all  sorts. 

The  English  army,  obeying  tlie  orders  of  a  commander  Avho 
remained  out  of  sight  and  far  behind  during  the  action,  rushed 
forward  with  fixed  bayonets  to  carry  the  lines,  the  regulars 
advancing  through  the  openings  between  the  i)rovincial  regi- 
ments, and  taking  the  lead.    Montcalm,  who  stood  just  within 
the  trenches,  threw  off  his  coat  for  the  sunny  work  of  the  July 
afternoon,  and  forbade  a  musket  to  be  fired  till  he  command- 
ed ;  then,  as  the  English  drew  very  near  in  three  principal  col- 
umns to  attack  simultaneously  tlu;  left,  the  centre,  and  the 
right,  and  became  entangled  among  the  rubbish  and  broken 
into^  disorder  by  clambering  over  logs  and  projecting  limbs, 
at  his  word  a  sudden  and  incessant  fire  from  swivels  and  small- 
arms  mowed  do^^^l  brave  officers  and  men.     Their  intrepidity 
made  the  carnage  terrible.    The  attacks  were  continued  all  the 
aftei-noon,  generally  with  the  greatest  \-ivacity.     When  the 
English  endeavored  to  turn  the  left,  Bourlamarque  opposed 
them  till  he  was  dangerously  wounded ;  and  Montcalm,  who 
watched  every  movement,  sent  re-enforcements  at  the  moment 
of  crisis.     On  the  right,  the  grenadiers  and  Scottish  High- 
landers charged  for  three  hours,  without  faltering  and  ^vithout 
confusion ;  many  fell  within  fifteen  steps  of  the  trench ;  some, 
it  was  said,  upon  it.     About  five  o'clock,  the  columns  which 
had  attacked  the  French  centre  and  right  concentrated  them- 


.1 ' 


490    COXQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  cii.  xm. 


?  i  1 

I' ' 

>1 

1 
?  1       i 

•^  i\ 

I  r 


^'! 


selves  on  a  salient  point  between  the  two;  but  Levi  fl(>w 
from  the  right,  and  Montcalm  himself  brought  up  a  reserve. 
At  six,  the  two  parties  nearest  the  water  turned  desperately 
against  the  centre,  and,  being  repulsed,  made  a  last  effort  on 
the  left.  Thus  were  life  and  courage  prodigally  wasted,  dll 
the  bewildered  English  fired  on  an  advanced  party  of  their 
own,  producing  hopeless  dejection ;  and,  after  losing,  in  killed 
and  wounded,  nineteen  hundred  and  sixty-seven,  chiefly  regu- 
lars, they  fled  promiscuously. 

The  British  general,  during  the  battle,  cowered  safely  at 
the  saw-mills ;  and,  when  his  presence  was  needed  to  rally  the 
fugitives,  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  The  second  in  command 
gave  no  orders ;  while  Montcalm,  careful  of  every  duty,  dis- 
tributed refreshments  among  his  exhausted  soldiers,  cheered 
them  by  thanks  to  each  regiment  for  their  valor,  and  employed 
the  coming  night  in  strengthening  his  lines. 

The  English  still  exceeded  the  French  fourfold.  Their 
artillery  was  near,  and  could  easily  force  a  passage.  The  moun- 
tain over  against  Ticonderoga  was  in  their  possession.  But 
Abercrombie,  a  victim  to  the  "  extremest  fright  and  conster- 
nation," hurried  the  army  that  same  evening  to  the  boats,  em- 
barked the  next  morning,  and  did  not  rest  till  he  had  placed 
the  lake  between  himself  and  Montcalm.  Even  then  he  sent 
artillery  and  ammunition  to  Albany  for  safety. 

The  news  overwhelmed  Pitt  'with  sadness.  Bute,  who 
insisted  that  "Abercrombie  and  the  troops  had  done  their 
duty,"  comforted  himself  in  "  the  numbers  lost "  as  proof  of 
"  the  greatest  intrepidity,"  thinking  it  better  to  have  cause  for 
"tears"  than  "blushes;"  and  reserved  his  sympathy  for  the 
"broken-hearted  commander."  Prince  George  expressed  his 
hope,  one  day,  by  "  superior  help,"  to  "  restore  the  love  of  vir- 
tue and  religion." 

While  Abercrombie  wearied  his  army  with  lining  out  a 
useless  fort,  the  partisans  of  Montcalm  wore  present  every- 
where. Just  after  the  retreat  of  the  English,  they  fell  upon  a 
regiment  at  the  Iltdf-way  Brook  between  Fort  Edward  and 
Lake  George.  A  fortnight  later,  they  seized  a  convoy  of 
wagoners  at  the  same  place.  To  intercejit  the  French  on  their 
return,  some  hundred  rani>;ers  scoured  the  forests  near  Wood- 


1758. 


GREATNESS  OF  MONTCALM. 


491 


creek,  marching  in  Indian  file,  Pntnani  in  the  rear,  in  front 
the  commander  Kogers,  who,  with  a  British  officer,  beguiled 
the  way  by  firing  at  marks.    The  noise  attracted  hostile  In- 
dians to  an  ambuscade.     A  skirmish  ensued,  and  Putnam,  with 
twelve  or  fourteen  more,  was  separated  from  the  party.     His 
comrades  were  scalped :  in  after-life,  he  used  to  relate  how  one 
of  the  savages  gashed  his  cheek  with  a  tomahawk,  bound  him 
to  a  forest-tree,  and  kindled  about  him  a  crackling  fire  ;  how  his 
thoughts  glanced  aside  to  the  wife  of  his  youth  and  his  children ; 
when  the  brave  French  oflScer,  Marin,  happening  to  descry  his 
danger,  rescued  him  from  death,  to  be  exchanged  in  the  autumn. 
Better  success  awaited  Bradstreet.     From  the  majority  in 
a  council  of  war,  he  extorted  a  reluctant  leave  to  proceed 
against  Fort  Frontenac.     At  the  Oneida  carrying-place.  Brig- 
adier Stanwix  placed  under  his  command  twenty-seven  hun- 
dred men,  all  Americans,  nearly  seven  hundred  from  Massa- 
chusetts, and  more  than  eleven  hundred  New  Yorkers,  among 
whom  were  the  brothers  James  and  George  Clinton.     There, 
too,  were  assembled  one  hundred  and  fifty  warriors  of  the  Six 
Nations;  among  them.  Red  Head,  the  renowned  war-chief 
of  Onondaga.     Inspired  by  his  clocpience  in  council,  two-and- 
forty  of  them  took  Bradstreet  for  their  friend,  and  grasped 
the  hatchet  as  his  companions.     At  Oswego,  toward  which 
they  moved  with  celerity,  there  remained  scarce  a  vestige  of 
the  Enghsh  fort ;  of  the  French  there  was  no  memorial  but  "  a 
large  wooden  cross."     As  the  Americans  gazed  with  extreme 
])leasure  on  the  scene  around  them,  they  were  told  that  farther 
west,  in  "  Genesee  and  Canasadaga,  there  were  lands  as  fertile 
rich,  and  luxuriant  as  any  in  the  universe."     Crossing  Lake 
Ontario  in  open  boats,  they  landed,  on   the  twenty-fifth  of 
August,  within  a  mile  of  Fort  Frontenac.     It  was  a  quad- 
rangle, mounted  with  thirty  pieces  of  cannon  and  sixteen 
small  mortars.     On  the  second  day,  such  of  the  garrison  as 
had  not  fled  surrendered.     Here  were  the  military  stores  for 
Fort  Duquesne  and  the  interior  dependencies,  with  nine  armed 
vessels,  each  carrying  from  eight  to  eighteen  guns ;  of  these, 
two  were  sent  to  Oswego.     After  razing  the  fortress,  and  de- 
stroying such  vessels  and  stores  as  could  not  be  brouo-ht  oil, 
the  Americans  returned  to  I-ake  George. 


* 


IJnir 


492    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.  ;  en.  xiir. 


There  the  main  army  was  wasting  the  season  in  supine  in- 
activity. The  news  of  the  disastrous  day  at  Ticonderoga  in- 
duced Amherst,  without  orders,  to  conduct  foui*  regiments  and 
a  battalion  from  Louisburg.  They  landed  in  September  at 
Boston,  and  at  once  entered  on  the  march  through  the  green- 
wood. In  one  of  the  regiments  was  Lieutenant  Eichard 
Montgomery,  who  remained  near  the  northern  lakes  till  17G0. 
"When  near  Albany,  Amherst  hastened  in  advance,  and  on  the 
fifth  of  October  came  upon  the  English  camp.  Early  in  ISTo- 
veraber,  despatches  arrived,  appointing  him  commander-in-chief. 
Eeturning  to  England,  Abercrombie  was  screened  from  censure, 
maligned  the  Americans,  and  afterward  assisted  in  parliament 
to  tax  the  witnesses  of  his  pusillanimity. 

Canada  was  exhausted.  "  Peace !  peace !  "  was  the  cry ; 
"  no  matter  with  what  boundaries."  "  I  have  not  lost  courage," 
wrote  Montcalm,  "nor  have  my  troops;  we  are  resolved  to 
find  our  graves  under  the  ruins  of  the  colony." 

Pitt,  who  had  carefully  studied  the  geography  of  !North 
America,  knew  that  the  success  of  Bradstreet  had  gained  the 
dominion  of  Lake  Ontario  and  opened  the  avenue  to  Niagara ; 
and  he  turned  his  mind  from  the  defeat  at  Ticonderoga,  to  see 
if  the  banner  of  England  was  already  waving  over  Fort  Du- 
quesne.  For  the  conquest  of  the  Ohio  valley  ho  relied  mainly 
on  the  central  provinces.  The  assembly  of  Maryland  had  in- 
sisted on  an  equitable  assessment  of  taxes  on  all  property,  not 
omitting  the  estates  of  the  proprietaries :  this  Loudoun  reported 
"  as  a  most  violent  attack  on  his  majesty's  prerogative."  "  I 
am  persuaded,"  urged  Sharpe  on  his  ofiicial  correspondent  in 
England,  "  if  the  parliament  of  Great  Britain  was  to  compel 
us  by  an  act  to  raise  thirty  thousand  pounds  a  year,  the  upper 
class  of  people  among  us,  and,  indeed,  all  but  a  very  few,  would 
be  well  satisfied ; "  and  he  sent  "  a  sketch  of  an  act "  for  "  a 
poll-tax  on  the  taxable  inhabitants."  But  that  form  of  raising 
a  revenue  throughout  America,  l)eing  sjiecially  un])alatable  to 
English  owners  of  slaves  in  the  "West  Indies,  was  disapproved 
"  by  all "  in  England.  While  the  officers  of  Lord  Baltimore 
were  thus  concerting  with  the  board  of  trade  a  tax  by  parlia- 
ment, Pitt,  though  entx'eated  to  interpose,  regarded  the  bicker- 
ings between  the  proprietary  and  the  people  with  calm  impar- 


1758. 


THE  MARCH  TO  THE  OHIO. 


493 


tiality,  blaming  both  parties  for  the  disputes  which  withheld 
Maryland  from  contributing  her  full  share  to  the  conquest  of 
Fort  Duquesne, 

After  long  delays,  Joseph  Forbes,  who  had  the  command 
as  brigadier,  saw  twelve  hundred  and  Hfty  Highlanders  arrive 
from  South  Carolina.  They  were  joined  by  three  hundred  and 
fifty  royal  Americans.  Pennsylvania,  animated  by  an  unusual 
military  spirit— which  seized  even  Benjamin  West,  lcno^\^l 
afterward  as  a  painter,  and  Anthony  Wayne,  then  a  boy 
of  thirteen— raised  for  the  expedition  twenty-seven  hundred 
men.  Their  senior  ofhcer  was  John  Armstrong.  With  Wash- 
ington as  their  leader,  Virginia  sent  two  regiments  of  about 
mneteen  hundred,  whom  their  beloved  commander  praised  as 
"  really  fine  corps."  Yet,  vast  as  were  the  preparations,  Forbes 
would  never,  but  for  Washington,  have  seen  the  Ohio. 

The  Yirginia  chief,  who  at  first  was  stationed  at  Fort  Cum- 
berland, clothed  a  part  of  his  force  in  the  hunting-shirt  and 
Indian  blanket,  which  least  unpeded  the  progress  of  the  soldier 
through  the  forest ;  and  he  entreated  that  tlie  army  might  ad- 
vance promptly  along  Braddock's  road.  But  the  expedition 
wa^  not  merely  a  military  enterprise  :  it  was  also  the  march  of 
civilization  toward  the  West,  and  was  made  memorable  by  the 
construction  of  a  better  avenue  to  the  Ohio.  This  required 
long-continued  labor.  September  had  come  before  Forbes, 
whose  life  was  slowly  ebbing,  was  borne  in  a  litter  as  far  as 
Eaystown.  But  he  preserved  a  clear  head  and  a  firm  will,  or, 
as  he  himself  expressed  it,  was  "  actuated  by  the  spirits "  of 
William  Pitt ;  and  he  decided  to  keep  up  tlie  direct  connec- 
tion with  Philadelphia,  as  essential  to  present  success  and 
future  security. 

While  Washington,  with  most  of  the  Virginians,  joined 
the  main  army,  Bouquet  was  sent  forward,  with  two  thousand 
men,  to  Loyal  ITanna.  There  Le  received  intelligence  that  the 
French  post  was  defended  by  but  eight  hundred  men,  of 
whom  three  hundred  were  Indians.  Bouquet,  without  the 
knowledge  of  his  superior  officer,  intrusted  to  ^Major  Grant, 
of^  Montgomery's  battalion,  a  party  of  eight  hundred,  chiefly 
Highlanders  and  Virginians,  of  Wasliingtoirs  command,  with 
orders  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy's  position.     The  men  easily 


49-i    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  cii.  xrii. 


ili 


I-  ;i 


scaled  tho  successive  ridges,  and  took  post  on  a  hill  near  Fort 
Duquesne.  JMot  knowing  that  Aubry  had  arrived  with  a  re- 
enforcenient  of  four  liundrcd  men  from  Illinois,  Oirant  divided 
his  troops,  in  order  to  tempt  the  enemy  into  an  amhuscade ; 
and,  at  daybreak  of  the  fourteenth  of  September,  discovered 
himself  by  beating  his  drams.  A  large  body  of  French  and 
Indians,  commanded  by  the  gallant  Aubry,  immediately  poured 
out  of  the  fort,  and  with  surprising  celerity  attacked  his  troops 
in  detail,  never  allowing  him  tune  to  get  them  together.  They 
gave  way  and  ran,  leaving  two  hundred  and  ninety-five  killed 
or  prisoners.  Even  Grunt,  who  in  the  folly  of  his  vanity  had 
but  a  few  moments  before  been  confident  of  an  easy  victory, 
gave  himself  up  as  a  captive ;  but  a  small  party  of  Virginians, 
imder  the  conmiand  of  Thomas  Bullitt,  arrested  the  precipitate 
flight,  and  saved  the  detachment  from  utter  ruin.  On  their 
return  to  the  caiui),  their  coolness  and  coiirage  were  publicly 
extolled  by  Forbes  ;  and,  in  the  opinion  of  the  wliole  army, 
regulars  as  well  as  provincials,  their  superiority  of  discipline 


reflected  honor  on  Washington. 


Not  till  the  fifth  of  November  did  Forbes  himself  reach 
Loyal  Ilanna  ;  and  there  a  council  of  war  determined  for  that 
season  to  advance  no  farther.  But,  on  the  twelfth,  Washing- 
ton gained  from  three  i)risouers  exact  information  of  the  weak- 
ness of  the  French  garrison  on  the  Ohio,  and  it  was  resolved 
to  proceed.  Two  thousand  five  Inuidred  men  were  ]iicked  for 
the  service.  For  the  sake  of  speed,  they  left  behind  eveiy 
convenience  except  a  blanket  and  a  knapsack,  and  of  tli^  .vr- 
tillery  took  only  a  light  train. 

Washington,  who,  pleading  a  "  long  intimacy  with  these 
woods"  and  familiarity  "  with  all  tho  passes  and  difliculties," 
had  solicited  the  responsibility  of  leading  the  party,  Avas  ap- 
pointed to  command  the  advance  brigade.  His  troops  ^vevG 
provincials.  Forbes,  now  sinking  into  the  grave,  bad  con- 
sumed fifty  days  in  marching  as  many  miles  from  Bedford  to 
Loyal  Ilanna.  Fifty  miles  of  the  Avilderness  still  remained  to 
be  opened  in  the  late  season,  through  a  soil  of  deep  clay,  or 
over  rocky  hills  white  with  snow,  by  troops  poorly  fed  and 
poorly  clad ;  but  Washington  infused  his  own  spirit  into  the 
men  whom  he  commanded,  and  who  thought  light  of  hard- 


1758. 


TDE  FOUNDING  OF  PITTSHURG. 


495 


bliips  and  dangers  wlulo  "under  the  particular  directions"  of 
"the  man  they  knew  and  loved."     Every  encampment  was 
so  ])lanned  us  to  hasten  the  issue.     On  the  thirteenth,  the  vet- 
eran Armstrong,  who  had  proved  his  skill  in  moving  troops 
rapidly  and  secretly  through  the  wilderness,  pushed  forward 
with  one  tliousand  men,  and  in  five  days  threw  up  defences 
within  seventeen  miles  of  Fort  Ducpiesne.     On  the  fifteenth 
AVashingtoii,  who  followed,  was  on  Chestnut  Ridge ;  on  the 
seventeenth,  at  JJusliy  Run.     "  All,"  he  reported,  "are  in  fine 
spints  and  anxious  to  go  on."     On  the  nineteenth,  Washin.r. 
ton  left  Armstrong  to  wait  for  the  Highlanders,  and,  takim. 
tJie  lead,  disj)elled  hy  his  vigilance  every  "apprehension  of  the 
enemy's  approach."     When,  on  the  twenty-fourth,  the  general 
encami)ed  his  whole  party  among  the  hills  of  Turkey  creek 
within  ten  miles  of  Fort  Duquesne,  the  disheartened  garrison' 
then  about  five  hundred  in  number,  set  fire  to  the  fort  in  the 
night-time,  and  by  the  light  of  its  fiames  went  down  the  Ohio 
On  Saturday,  the  twenty-fifth  of  November,  the  little  army 
moved  on  in  one  body;  and  at  evening  the  youthful  hero 
could  point  out  to  Armstrong  and  the  hardy  provincials,  who 
mai^hed  in  front,  to  the  Highlanders  and  royal  Americans,  to 


Forbes  himself,  the  meeting  of  the 


rivers.     Armstrong's  own 


hand  raised  the  British  Hag  over  the  ruined  bastions  of  the 
fortress.  As  the  banners  of  England  floated  over  the  waters, 
the  place,  at  the  suggestion  of  Forbes,  was  with  one  voice 
called  I  ittshurg.  It  is  the  most  enduring  monument  to  Will- 
iam 1  itt.  America  raised  to  his  name  statues  that  have  been 
wrongfully  broken,  and  granite  piles  of  which  not  one  stone 
remains  upon  another;  but,  long  as  the  Monongahela  and  the 
Alleghany  shall  flow  to  form  the  Ohio,  long  as  the  English 
tongueshall  be  the  language  of  freedom  in  tlie  boundless  val- 
ley which  their  waters  traverse,  his  name  shall  stand  inscribed 
on  the  gateway  of  the  West. 

_  The  twenty-sixth  was  observed  as  a  day  of  public  thanks- 
giving for  success ;  and  when  was  success  of  greater  inapor- 
tance  i  The  connection  between  the  sea-side  and  the  world  be- 
yond the  mountains  was  established  forever;  avast  territory 
was  secnred;  the  civilization  of  liberty  and  commerce  and  re- 
ligion was  henceforth  "  to  maintain  the  undisputed  ])ossession 


!i 


:  \ 


5h'i 


m 


I 


1 '     i 


-}f 


n  • 


490    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.;  en.  xiit. 

of  the  Ohio."  "  These  dreary  deserts,"  wrote  Forbes,  "  will 
soon  1)0  the  richest  and  most  fertile  of  any  possessed  hy  the 
British  in  North  America." 

On  the  twenty-eiglith,  a  numerous  detachment  went  to 
Braddock's  field,  where  their  slauglitered  conn-ades,  after  more 
than  three  years,  lay  yet  unhuried  in  the  forest.  Here  and 
there  a  skeleton  was  found  restins;  on  the  trunk  of  a  fallen 
tree,  as  if  a  wounded  man  had  sunk  down  in  the  attempt  to 
fly.  In  some  places,  wolves  and  crows  had  left  signs  of  their 
ravages :  in  others,  the  blackness  of  ashes  marked  the  scene  of 
the  revelry  of  cannibals.  The  trees  still  showed  branches  rent 
by  cannon,  trunks  dotted  with  musket-balls.  Where  the  havoc 
had  been  the  fiercest,  bones  lay  whitening  in  confusion.  None 
could  be  recognised,  except  that  the  son  of  Sir  Peter  Ilalket 
was  called  by  the  shrill  whistle  of  a  savage  to  the  great  tree 
near  which  his  father  and  his  brother  had  been  seen  to  fall  to- 
gether ;  and,  while  Benjamin  West  and  a  company  of  Pennsyl- 
vanians  formed  a  circle  around,  the  Indians  removed  the  leaves 
till  they  bared  the  relics  of  the  youth,  lying  across  those  of  the 
elder  officer.  The  remains  of  the  two,  thus  united  in  death, 
were  Avraj^ped  in  a  Highland  plaid,  and  consigned  to  one  grave, 
with  the  ceremonies  that  belong  to  the  burial  of  the  brave. 
The  bones  of  the  undistinguishable  multitude,  more  than  four 
luuidred  and  fifty  in  nnmber,  were  indiscriminately  cast  into 
the  ground,  no  one  knowing  for  whom  specially  to  weep.  The 
chilling  gloom  of  the  forest  at  the  coming  of  winter,  the  relig- 
ious awe  that  mastered  the  savages,  the  groups  of  soldiers  sor- 
rowing over  the  ghastly  ruins  of  an  anny,  formed  a  sombre 
scene  of  desolation.  How  is  all  changed  I  The  banks  of  the 
broad  and  placid  Monongahela  smile  with  gardens,  orchards, 
and  teeming  harvests ;  with  workshops  and  villas ;  the  victories 
of  peace  have  effaced  the  memorials  of  war;  railroads  send 
their  cars  over  the  Alleglianies  in  fewer  hours  than  the  army 
had  taken  weeks  for  its  unresisted  march ;  and  in  all  that  re- 
gion no  sounds  now  prevail  but  of  life  and  activity. 

Two  regiments,  composed  of  Pennsylvanians,  Marylanders, 
and  Yirginians,  remained  as  a  garrison,  under  the  command  of 
Mercer ;  and  for  Washington,  who  at  twenty-six  retired  from 
the  army,  after  having  done  so  nnich  to  advance  the  limits  of 


'» 


■nr' 


T 


17C8. 


WASllINGTON  m  RETIliEMENT. 


497 


C    -5 


Li?  country,  tlic  next  few  weeks  were  filled  with  happiness  smd 
honor.  The  people  of  Fredericktown  liad  chosen  hiju  their 
representative.  On  the  last  day  of  the  year,  "  the  affectionate 
officers  "  who  had  been  under  liini  expressed,  with  "  sincerity 
and  openness  of  soul,"  their  grief  at  "■the  loss  of  biich  an  excel- 
lent commander,  such  a  sincere  friend,  and  so  affable  a  compan- 
ion," "  a  man  so  ex])erienced  in  military  affairs,  one  so  renowned 
for  patriotism,  conduct,  and  courage.'"  They  publicly  acknowl- 
edged to  have  found  in  him  a  leader  who  had  "a  cpiick  dis- 
cernment and  invariable  regard  for  merit,  an  earnestness  to  in- 
culcate genuine  sentiments  oi'  true  honor  and  passion  for  glory  ; " 
whose  "example  inspired  alacrity  and  cheerfulness  in  encoun- 
tering severest  toils;"  whose  zeal  for  "strict  disci])line  and  or- 
der gave  to  his  troops  a  superiority  which  even  the  regulars 
and  provincials  publicly  acknowledged."  On  the  sixth  of  the 
follo\vi]ig  January,  the  woman  of  his  choice  was  bound  with 
him  in  wedlock.  The  first  mouth  of  union  was  hardly  over 
when,  in  the  house  of  burgesses,  the  speaker,  obeying  the  re- 
solve of  the  house,  publicly  gave  him  the  thanks  of  Virginia 
for  his  services  to  his  country ;  and  as  the  young  man, 
taken  by  surprise,  hesitated  for  words  in  his  attempt  to  reply, 
"  Sit  down,"  interposed  the  speaker ;  "  your  modesty  is  equal 
to  your  valor,  and  that  sui*])asses  the  power  of  any  language  I 
possess."  After  these  crowded  weeks,  Washington,  no  more  a 
soldier,  retired  to  Mount  Yernon,  with  the  experience  of  five 
years  of  assiduous  service.  Yet  not  the  quiet  of  rural  life  by 
the  side  of  the  Potomac,  not  the  sweets  of  conjugal  love,  could 
turn  his  fixed  mind  from  the  love  of  glory ;  and  he  revealed 
his  passion  by  adorning  his  rooms  with  busts  of  Eugene  and 
Marlborougli,  of  Alexander,  of  CtEsar,  of  Chai-les  XII. ;  and  of 
one  only  among  living  men,  the  king  of  Prussia,  whose  strug- 
gles he  watched  ^vith  painful  sympathy.  Washington  had 
ever  before  his  eyes  the  image  of  Frederic.  Both  were  emi- 
nently founders  of  nations,  childless  heroes,  fathers  only  to 
their  countries :  the  one  beat  down  the  dominion  of  the  aris- 
tocracy of  the  middle  ages  by  a  military  monarchy ;  the  Provi- 
dence which  rules  the  world  had  elected  the  other  to  guide  the 
fiery  coursers  of  revolution  along  nobler  paths,  and  to  check 
them  firmly  at  the  goal. 

VOL.  II.— 32 


!| 


'¥  III  11 


:i  liii 


498    OONQnEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,     m-.  i.;wi.  x„. 


;1 


,1 


!i 


CTIAPTER  XIV. 

THE   CONQUEHT   OF   OANADA.       I'ITt's    MINISTRY    OONTINUICD. 

1759. 

The  first  object  of  Pitt  on  obtaining  real  power  was  the 
acquisition  of  tiie  boinulle.ss  dominions  of  France  in  America. 
AVitli  astoni^iliing  unanimity,  ])arliament  voted  for  tlie  year 
twelve  millions  sterb'ng,  and  such  forces,  by  sea  and  land,  na 
till  those  days  had  been  nnimagined  in  England. 

In  the  arrangements  for  the  campaign,  the  secretary  disre- 
garded seniority  of  rank.  Stanwix  was  to  complete  tlie  occu- 
pation of  the  i)osts  at  the  West,  from  Pittsburg  to  Lake  Erio ; 
Prideaux  to  reduce  Fort  Niagara;  and  Airdierst,  now  com- 
mander-in-chief and  the  sinecure  governor  of  Virginia,  U  ad- 
vance with  the  main  army  to  Lake  dhamplain.  For  the  con- 
quest of  Quebec,  Pitt  coniided  the  fleet  to  Saunders,  an  officer 
who  to  miiiifected  modesty  and  steady  courage  joined  the  love 
of  civil  freedom.  For  the  comnumd  of  the  army  in  the  river 
St.  Lawrence  Wolfe  was  selected.  "  I  feel  called  ni)on,"  he  had 
written,  on  occasion  of  his  early  promotion,  "  to  justify  the 
notice  taken  of  me  by  such  exertions  and  exposure  of  myself 
as  ^vill  probably  lead  to  my  fall."  And  the  day  before  depart- 
ing for  his  command,  in  the  inspiring  presence  of  Pitt,  he 
forgot  danger,  glory,  everything  but  the  overmastering  pur- 
pose to  consecrate  himself  to  his  conntry. 

^  All  the  while,  ships  from  every  part  of  the  world  were 
bringing  messages  of  the  success  of  Britisb  arms.  In  the  pre- 
ceding April,  a  small  English  squadron  made  a  conquest  of 
Senegal ;  in  December,  negroes  crowded  on  the  heights  of  the 
island  of  Goree  to  witness  the  surrender  of  its  forts  to  Com- 
modore Augustus  Kcppel.     In  the  Indian  seas,  Pococke  main- 


I.;  OH.  XIV. 


riNui;n. 


3r  was  the 
America, 
the  year 

(1  land,  aa 

tary  disre- 
tlie  oceu- 
«iko  Ei'io ; 
now  com- 
lia,  t<  :i(l- 
r  the  coii- 
an  officer 
1  the  love 
tlie  river 
1,"  lie  had 
Lstify  the 
ii  myself 
re  dcpart- 
■  Pitt,  he 
ring  pur- 

)rld  were 
1  the  pre- 
iquest  of 
its  of  the 
to  Com- 
slm  maiu- 


17Bfl. 


THE  (X)NQUEST  OF  CANADA. 


400 


tauied  the  siiponority  of  England.      In  the  West  TndieH,  in 
January  17r>!>,  a  lleet  of  ten  line-of-hattle  Hhijw,  with  six  tl'ioii- 
Hand  directive  tr()oi)M,  made  a  fniitleas  attack  on  Martini.pie; 
but  in  May  it  gained,  by  capitulation,  the  well-watered  island 
of  (luadaloupe,  whoso  harbor  can  Hcreen  whole  navies  from 
hurricanes,  and  by  its  position  commands  the  neighboring  seas. 
Froin  tlu!  continent  of  Europe  came  the  assurance  that  a 
victory  at  Minden  had  protected   Ifanover.     The  r'reTich,*hav- 
ing  repulsed  Prince  I'erdinand  of  Brunswick  at  Fraidcfort,  i)ur- 
Kued  thciir  advantage,  occupied  Ciwsel,  compelled  Munst'er  to 
capitulat(!,  and  took  Minden  by  assault;  so  that  Hanover  could 
be  saved  only  by  a  victory.     Contades  and  Broglie,  the  French 
generals,   with  their  superior  force,  were  allured   from  their 
strong  position,  and  ac(!epte(l  battle  on  narrow  and  inconven- 
ient ground,  on  which  their  horse  occui)ied  the  centre,  their 
foot  the  wings.     Tlu!  French  cavalry  (^barged,  but,  sw('i)t  by- 
artillery  and  the  rolling  fire  of  the  English  ami  Hanoverian  in- 
faTitry,  they  were  repulsed.     At  this  moment,  Ferdinand,  who 
had   detached   the   hereditary  prince  of   Bmnswick  witli  ten 
thousand  men  to  cut  olf  the  retreat,  sent  a  message  to  tlie  com- 
mander of  tho  British  cavalry.  Lord  TJeorge  Sackville,  hy  a 
(lerman  aide-de-camp,  wTiom  Lord  George  affected  not  to  uii- 
d(!rstand.     Ligonier  came  next,  with  express  directions  that  he 
bring  up  the  cavalry  and  attack  the  French,  who  were  falter- 
ing.    "  See  the  confusion  he  is  in  !  "  cried  Slopes-  to  Ligonier ; 
"  for  Ood's  sake  repeat  your  orders !  "     Fitzroy  arrived  with  a 
third  order  from  Ferdinand.     "  This  cannot  be  so,"  said  Lord 
( Jeorge  ;  "  would  he  have  me  break  the  line  ? "     Fitzroy  urged 
tliG  command.     "  Do  not  be  in  a  hurry,"  said  Lord  Geo?ge. 
"  I  am  out  of  breath  with  galloping,"  n^plied  young  Fitzroy, 
"  which  makes  me  speak  quick ;  but  my  orders  are  positive  ; 
the  French  are  m  confusion ;  here  is  a  glorious  opportunity 
for  the  English  to  distinguish  themselves."     "It  is  impossi- 
ble," repeated   Lord  George,  "  that  the  prince  could  mean  to 
break  the  line."     "  I  give  you  his  orders,"  rejoined  Fitzroy, 
"  word  for  word."     "  Who  will  be  the  guide  to  the  cavalry  ? " 
asked  Lord  George.     "  I,"  said  the  brave  boy,  and  led  the  way. 
Lord  George,  pretending  to   be   puzzled,  was  reminded   by 
Smith,  one  of  his  aids,  of  the  necessity  of  immediate  obedi- 


M  f\  tl 


[i.  H  aiMi^laaalBiaiiKsal 


500    CO.VQUKST  OK  TIIK  WEST  AND  CANADA,     r.v.  i.-  cii.  xi^. 

eneo;  on  wliicli  ho  Hcnt  Smith  to  loud  on  th(>  British  csivuh-v 
wLilu  ho  hiin.sulf  redo  to  thu  prlnco  for  cxplaiuition.  Ferdi- 
nand, in  scorn,  renewed  hin  orders  to  the  inar(|ni,s  of  Granby 
the  second  in  conmiand,  and  was  obeyed  with  alacrity ;  but  the 
decisive  moment  was  lost.  "Lord  (leorge's  fall  was  prodi^nonn; 
nobody  stood  hijj;her;  nobody  had  more  ambition."  ({eor<'e 
II.  dismissed  him  from  all  his  posts.  A  court-martial  the  next 
year  found  liiiu  guilty  of  disobeying  orders,  and  untit  for  em- 
l)loyment  in  any  ndlitury  capacity  ;  on  whicli  the  king  struck  Iuh 
name  out  of  the  council-book  and  forbade  bis  ai>i)earance  at  court. 

In  America,  every  colony  north  of  i\[aryl.jid  seconded  Will- 
iam ritt.  In  New  York  and  New  Kngland  there  was  not  one 
vilhige  but  grew  familiar  with  war  from  the  experience  of  its 
own  inhabitants.  Massachusetts  sent  into  the  service  nioi-e 
than  seven  thousaiul  men,  or  nearly  one  sixth  part  of  all  who 
were  able  to  bear  arms.  Connecticut  raised,  as  in  the  i)revious 
year,  live  thousand  men  ;  incurred  debts,  and  appointed  heavy 
taxes  to  discharge  them.  New  Jersey,  which  had  lost  one  thou- 
sand men,  yet  voted  to  raise  one  tJiousaiul  more;  and  expended 
yearly  for  the  ^var  an  amount  e(pial  to  about  live  dollars  for 
each  inhabitant.  Such  was  tlie  free  service  of  loyal  colonies 
nnder  an  administration  whicli  rcsjiected  their  liberty. 

To  encounter  the  preparations  of  England  and  America, 
Canada  received  scanty  supplies  of  provisions  from  France. 
"The  king,"  wrote  the  minister  of  war  to  Montcalm,  "relies  on 
your  zeal  and  obstinacy  of  courage ; "  but  Montcalm  informed 
Belle-Isle  that,  without  unexpected  good  fortune,  or  great  fmilt 
in  the  enemy,  Canada  must  be  taken  this  cami)aign,  or  cer- 
tainly the  next.  Its  census  showed  but  a  poinilation  of  about 
eighty-two  thousand,  of  whom  not  r"ore  than  seven  thousand 
men  could  serve  as  soldiers;  the  eight  F'rench  l)attalions 
counted  but  thirty-two  hundred,  while  the  English  were 
thought  to  have  almost  fifty  thousand  men  in  arms.  There 
was  a  dearth  in  the  land  ;  the  fields  were  hardly  cultivated  ;  do- 
mestic animals  were  failing ;  the  soldiers  were  unjjaid ;  paj)er 
money  had  increased  to  thii-ty  millions  of  livres,  and  would 
that  year  be  increased  twelve  millions  more ;  while  the  civil 
officers  were  making  haste  to  enrich  themselves  before  the  sur- 
render, which  was  to  screen  their  frauds. 


Tff 


^^^ 


1759. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA. 


601 


The  western  hriijdde,  under  IVidoaux,  compoRod  of  two  biit- 
talions  from  New  York,  a  battalion  of  royal  Americans,  iuid 
two  British  re<?irnents,  with  a  detaclitnent  of  royal  artillery,  and 
Indian  auxiliaries  under  Sir  William  Johnson,  was  tlio  tirst  to 
ongaijo  actively.  Fort  Nla<,'ara  stood,  as  its  ruins  yet  stand, 
on  the  flat  and  narrow  promontory  round  which  the  dc^ep  and 
rapid  Nia<,'ara  sweeps  into  the  lower  lake.  There  La  Salle, 
first  of  Kuropeaiis,  had  raised  a  li^dit  palisade.  There  Denon- 
villo  had  constructed  a  fortress  and  left  a  garrison  for  a  winter. 
It  cojnmanded  the  portage  betwecTi  Ontario  and  Erie,  imd  gave 
the  dominion  of  the  western  fur  trade.  Leaving  a  detachment 
with  Colonel  Ilaldimnnd  to  build  a  tenable  post  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Oswego,  the  united  American,  British,  and  Indian  forces 
embarked,  on  the  tii-st  day  of  J  uly,  on  Lake  Ontario,  and  landed 
without  opposition  at  one  of  its  inlets,  six  miles  east  of  the 
junction  of  the  Niagara.  The  fortress  on  the  peninsula  was 
easily  invested. 

Aware  of  the  importance  of  the  station,  D'Anbry  collected 
from  Detroit  and  Erie,  Lc  Bonif  and  Venango,  an  army  of 
twelve  hundred  men,  and  nuirehed  to  the  rescue.  Prideanx 
made  the  best  dispositions  to  fmstrate  the  design  ;  but,  on  the 
fifteenth  of  July,  he  was  killed  by  the  bursting  of  a  colom. 
Sir  AVilliam  Johnson,  who  succeeded  him,  connnemorated  his 
abilities,  and  executed  his  plans.  On  the  morning  of  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  July,  the  T'^rench  made  their  appearance.  The  Mo- 
hawks gave  a  sign  for  a  parley  with  the  French  Indians :  but, 
as  it  was  not  returned,  they  raised  the  war-whoop.  While  the 
regulars  advanced  to  meet  the  French  in  front,  the  English 
Indians  gained  their  flanks  and  threw  them  into  disorder,  on 
which  the  English  rushed  to  the  charge  with  irresistil)le  fury. 
The  French  broke,  retreated,  and  were  pursued,  suffering  great 
loss.  On  the  next  day,  the  garrison,  of  about  six  hundred  men, 
capitulated.  New  York  extended  its  limits  to  the  Niagara  river 
and  Lake  Erie.  The  officer  and  troops  sent  by  Stanwlx  from 
Pittsburg  took  possession  of  the  French  posts  as  far  as  Erie 
without  resistatice. 

The  success  of  the  English  on  Lake  Ontario  drew  Levi,  the 
second  in  military  command  in  New  France,  from  before  Que- 
bec.    He  ascended  beyond  the  rapids,  and  endeavored  to  gi"ird. 


fi 


502    CONQUEST  OF  TIIK  WEriT  AND  CANADA,    icp.  i. 


;  I'll.  xiv. 


f  J 


U  ,J 


f-; 


faiAffiiteilii; 


ugaiiiHt  u  (k'scoiit  to  Moiitreiil  by  occupyiii^jj  tlio  posHen  of  tho 
river  iiL'iir  OgcU'iishur^',  The  men  at  his  diHiHwal  were  too  few 
to  aeeuin[)nsh  the  ohjeet;  and  Amherst  directed  (lago,  whom 
he  detiiehed  as  successor  to  Frideaux,  to  take  possession  ol'  tiie 
post.  JJut  (;a|,'e  made  excuses  for  neglecthig  the  order,  and 
whiled  away  liis  harvest-time  of  honor. 

Meantime,  the  commander-in-chief  asKeml)led  the  main 
army  at  Lake  (ieijrge.  The  temper  of  Andierst  wan  never  nif- 
tled  by  collisions  with  the  Americans;  his  displcitsure  was  con- 
ceaU'd  under  apparent  apathy  or  imi)enetral)Ie  self-connnand. 
Ilih  judj-nient  was  slow  and  cautious  ;  his  mind  solid,  hut  never 
inventive.  Taciturn  and  stoical,  he  displayed  respectable  abili- 
ties as  a  commander,  without  fertility  of  resom-ces  or  dai-iu"- 
eutor])rise.  In  iive  Ih-itish  rcfjjhnents,  with  the  royal  Ameri- 
cans, he  had  lifty -seven  hundred  and  forty-three  regulars;  of 
provincials  and  (Jage's  light  infantry  he  had  nearly  as  many 
more.  On  tlie  longest  day  in  June,  he  reacled  the  lake,  and 
the  next  day,  with  useless  precaution,  traced  out  the  ground 
for  a  fort.  On  tho  twenty-tirst  of  July,  the  invincible  flotilla 
moved  in  four  columns  down  the  water,  with  artillery  and 
more  than  eleven  thousand  men.  On  the  twenty-second,  the 
anny  disend)arked  on  the  eastern  shore,  nearly  opposite  the 
landing-place  of  Abercrond)ie ;  and  that  night,  after  a  skirmish 
of  the  advanced  guard,  they  lay  under  arms  at  tbe  saw-mills. 
Conscious  of  their  hud)ility  to  resist  the  Uritish  artillery  and 
army,  the  French,  on  the  next  day,  deserted  their  lines ;  on 
the  twenty-sixth,  abandoned  Ticonderoga ;  and,  live  days  after- 
ward, retreated  from  Crown  I^>int  to  Isle-aux-Noix. 

The  whole  mass  of  the  people  of  Canada  had  been  called  to 
arms ;  the  noblesse  piqued  themselves  on  the  nulitary  prowess 
of  their  ancestors,  and  their  own  great  courage  and  loyalty. 
So  general  had  been  the  levy  that  there  were  not  men  enough 
left  to  reap  the  fields  round  Montreal ;  and,  to  prevent  starva- 
tion, women,  old  men,  and  children  were  ordered  to  gather  in 
the  harvest  alike  for  rich  and  poor.  The  army  that  opposed 
Amherst  had  but  one  fourth  of  his  numbers,  and  could  not  be 
recruited.  An  inmiediate  descent  on  Montreal  was  imiversally 
expected.  Amherst  nmst  advance,  or  Wolfe  may  i^erish.  But, 
after  repairing  Ticonderoga,  he  wasted  labor  in  buildhig  forti- 


17C0. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA. 


603 


il(!ati()ii8  ut  (h'ovvn  Point,  which  tho  coiuiuoHt  of  Ciinadii  would 
render  usoIchs.  Thus  he  let  all  Au^r„st,  all  Septeniher,  and 
ten  days  of  October  ^n  by;  and  when  at  last  he  embarked,  and 
victory,  not  without  iionor,  nii<rht  still  have  [>een  within  hi« 
grasp,  he  received  niessen^erH  from  (Quebec,  and  turned  back, 
liaviiifr  (l„„o  nuthin^r  b„t  occupy  and  repair  deserted  forts. 
.Sending  a  detachment  against  the  St.  Francis  Indians,  he  went 
into  winter-(piurters,  leaving  his  uniinished  work  f..r  anotlw-r 
costly  campaign.  Andierst  was  a  brave  and  faithful  ulPcer, 
but  his  intellect  was  dull.  JI,.  guiued  a  great  position,  be.  :..^80 
New  France  was  u(-(piiml  during  his  chief  commaiid  ;  but,  i.ad 
Wolfe  resembled  him,  (Quebec  would  not  have  fallen. 

As  soon  as  the  iloating  nuisses  of  ice  i)ermitte(l,  the  forces 
xor  the  e.\i)edition  against  Quebec  had  re[)aired  to  J.ouisburg; 
and  Wolfe,  by  his  zeal,  good  judgment  and  the  clearness  of  his 
orders,  insi)ired  unbounded  coniidenco.     His  army  consisted 
of  eight  regiments,  two  battalions  of  royal  Americans,  three 
comi)anies  of  rangers,  artillery,  and  a  brigade  of  engineers— ia 
all,  about  eight  thousand  men ;  the  fleet  under  Saunders  had 
two-and-twenty  ships  of  tho  line,  and  as  ntany  frigates  and 
armed  vessels.    On  board  of  one  of  the  shii)s  was  Jervis,  after 
ward  Earl  Saint-Vincent ;  another  bore  as  master  James  Cook 
the  navigator,  destined  to  reveal  the  paths  and  thousand  isles 
of  the  Pacilic.     The  brigades  liad  for  their  conunanders  the 
brave,  open-hearted,  and  liberal  Robert  IMonckton,  afterward 
governor  of  New  York  and  eonciueror  of  Martinique ;  George 
Tomishend,  elder  brother  of  Charles  Townshend,  soon  to  suc- 
ceed his  father  in  the  i)eerage  and  become  known  as  a  legislator 
for  America,  a  niau  of  quick  perception,  but  unsafe  judgment ; 
and  the  rash  and  inconsiderate  Tames  Murray.     For  adjutant- 
general,  AYolfe  selected  Isaac  Barro,  his  old  associate  at  Louis- 
buig.     The  grenadiers  of  the  army  ware  formed  into  a  corps, 
commanded  by  Colonel  Guy  Jarleton ;  a  detachment  of  light 
infantry  was  to  receive  orders  from  Lieutenant-Colonel,  after- 
ward Sir  William,  Howe. 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  June,  the  anuament  arrived,  with- 
out accident,  off  the  isle  of  Orleans,  on  which,  the  next  day, 
they  disembarked.  The  British  fleet,  with  the  numerous  trans- 
ports, lay  at  anchor  on  the  left ;  the  tents  of  the  army  stretched 


1 


ill 


50i    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  en.  xiv. 


'It-/, 


M     Pi 

'I  i  r 


across  the  island ;  the  intrenched  troops  of  France,  having  their 
centre  at  the  village  of  Beauport,  extended  from  the  Montmo- 
'•enci  to  the  St.  Charles ;  a  little  south  of  west,  the  seeniino-ly 
impregnable  cliff  of  Quebec  completed  one  of  the  grandest 
scenes  in  nature.  To  protect  this  guardian  citadel  of  Xew 
France,  Montcalm  had  of  regular  troops  no  more  than  six 
wasted  battalions ;  of  Indian  Avarriors  few  appeared,  the  wary 
savages  preferring  the  security  of  neutrals ;  the  Canadian  mili- 
tia gave  him  the  sui)erIority  in  numbers ;  but  he  put  his  chief 
confidence  in  the  natural  strength  of  the  country.  Above  Que- 
bec, the  high  promontory  on  which  the  upper  town  is  built 
expands  into  an  elevated  plain,  having  toward  the  river  the 
steepest  acclivities.  For  nine  miles  or  more  above  the  city, 
aa  far  as  Cape  Rouge,  every  landing-place  was  intrenched  and 
protected.  The  river  St.  Charles,  after  meandering  through 
a  fertile  valley,  sweeps  the  rocky  base  of  the  town,  which  it 
covers  by  expanding  into  sedgy  marshes.  Nine  miles  below 
Quebec,  the  Montmorenci,  after  fretting  itself  a  whirlpool 
route  and  dropping  for  miles  down  steps  worn  in  its  rocky 
bed,  rushes  to  the  ledge,  over  which,  falling  two  hundred  and 
fifty  feet,  it  pours  its  fleecy  cataract  into  the  chasm. 

At  midnight,  on  the  twenty-eighth,  the  short  darkness  was 
Hglited  up  by  a  fleet  of  well-directed  fire-ships,  that  came  down 
with  the  tide ;  but  the  British  sailors  towed  them  free  of  the 
shipping. 

The  men-of-war  assured  to  Wolfe  the  dominion  ,t  the 
water,  and  with  it  the  superiority  on  the  south  shore  of  the 
St.  Lawrence.  In  the  night  of  the  twenty-ninth,  Monckton, 
with  four  battalions,  having  crossed  the  south  channel  occu- 
pied Point  Levi ;  and  where  the  mighty  current,  which  below 
the  town  expands  as  a  bay,  flows  in  a  deep  stream  of  but  a 
mile  in  width,  batteries  of  mortar  and  cannon  M'cre  construct- 
(kI.  Farly  in  July,  the  citizens  of  Quel)ec,  foreseeing  the  niin 
of  their  houses,  volunteered  to  pass  over  the  river  and  destroy 
the  works ;  but,  at  the  trial,  their  courage  failed  them.  The 
English,  by  the  discharge  of  red-hot  balls  and  shells,  demol- 
ished the  lower  tovm,  and  injured  the  upper ;  but  the  citadel 
was  beyond  their  reach. 

Wolfe  was  eager  for  battle,  being  willing  to  risk  all  his 


1759. 


THE  CONQUEST   OF  CANADA. 


505 


hopes  on  tlie  issue.  He  saw  that  the  eastern  bank  of  the 
Montmorenci  was  higher  than  tlie  ground  occupied  bj  Mont- 
cahn,  and,  on  the  ninth,  lie  crossed  tlie  nortli  channel  and  en- 
camped there ;  but  the  armies  and  their  chiefs  were  still  divided 
by  the  river  precipitating  itself  down  its  rocky  way  in  impas- 
sable eddies  and  rapids.  Three  miles  in  the  interior,  a  ford 
was  found;  but  the  opposite  bank  was  steep,  woody,  and  weU 
intrenched.  Not  an  approach  on  th  line  of  the  Montmorenci, 
for  miles  into  the  intei-ior,  was  left  unprotected. 

The  general  proceeded  to  reconnoitre  the  shore  above  the 
town.    In  concert  with  Saunders,  on  the  eighteenth  he  sailed 
along  the  well-fortified  bank  from  Montmorenci  to  the  St 
Charles;  he  passed  the  deep  and  spacious  harbor,  which,  at 
tour  hmidred  miles  from  the  sea,  can  shelter  a  hundred  ships 
of  the  line;  he  neared  the  high  cliff  of  Cape  Diamond,  tower- 
ing like  a  bastion  over  the  waters  and  sunnounted  by  the  ban- 
ner of  the  Bourbons ;  he  coasted  along  the  craggy  wall  of  rock 
that  extends  beyond  the  citadel ;  he  marked  the  outline  of  the 
precipitous  hill  that  forms  the  north  bank  of  the  river-  and 
everywhere  he  beheld  a  natural  fastness,  vigilantly  defended  • 
mtrenchments,  cannon,  boats,  and  iloating  batteries  guarding 
every  access.  '^ 

Meantime,  at  midnight  on  the  twenty-eighth,  the  French 
sent  down  a  raft  of  fire-stages,  consisting  of  nearly  a  hmidred 
pieces;  but  these,  like  the  fire-ships  a  month  before,  did  but 
light  up  the  river,  without  injuring  tlie  British  fleet.  Scarcely 
a  dcy  passed  but  there  were  skirmishes  of  the  English  with  the 
Indians  and  Canadians,  who  trod  stealthily  in  the  footsteps  of 
every  exploring  party. 

Wolfe  returned  to  Montmorenci.  Julv  was  almost  gone 
and  he  had  made  no  effective  advances.  Tie  resolved  on  an 
engagement.  The  irontmorenci,  after  fallino;  over  a  penien- 
(hcular  rock,  flows  for  three  hundred  yards,  amid  clouds  of 
spray  and  rainbows,  in  a  gentle  stream  to  the  St.  Lawrence 
Near  the  junction,  the  river  may,  for  a  few  hours  of  the  tide, 
be  passed  on  foot.  It  was  planned  that  two  brigades  shonld 
ford  the  Montmorenci  at  the  proper  time  of  the  tide,  while 
Monckton's  regiments  should  cross  the  St.  Lawrence  in  boats 
from  Point  Levi.     The  signal  was  made,  but  some  of  tl. 


i 

i    f 
i    1 

,  1 

1 

.! 

1  ' 

i 

1 
\ 

' 

;   1; 

506    CONQUEST  OF  TEE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.;  en.  xiv. 


!>  '     li       I  Vl 


,^n: 


Mi^ 


^Ij'lf 


i!" 


"5 


i 


ifPPffl 


boats  grounded  on  a  ledge  of  rocks  that  runs  out  into  the  r'ver. 
While  the  seaiuou  were  getting  them  off,  and  the  enemy  were 
firing  a  vast  number  of  shot  and  shells,  Wolfe,  with  some  of 
the  navy  officers  as  companions,  selected  a  landing-place ;  and 
his  desperate  courage  thought  it  not  yet  too  late  to  begin  the 
attack.  Thirteen  companies  of  grenadiers,  and  two  hundred  of 
the  second  battalion  of  the  royal  Americans,  who  got  first  on 
shore,  not  waiting  for  support,  ran  hastily  toward  the  intrench- 
ments,  and  were  repulsed  in  such  disorder  that  they  could  not 
again  come  into  line,  though  Monckton's  regiments  arriv(!d 
and  formed  with  self-possession.  But  hours  hurried  by  ;  night 
was  near ;  the  clouds  gathered  heavily,  as  if  for  a  storm  ;  the 
tide  was  rising ;  Wolfe  ordered  a  timely  retreat.  A  strand  of 
deep  nuid ;  a  hillside,  steep,  and  in  many  places  impracticable ; 
the  heavy  fire  of  a  brave,  numerous,  and  well-protected  enemy 
— were  obstacles  which  intrepidity  and  discipline  could  not 
overcome.  In  general  orders,  Wolfe  censured  the  impetuosity 
of  the  grenadiers ;  he  praised  the  coohiess  of  Monckton's  regi- 
ments, as  able  alone  to  beat  back  the  whole  Canadian  army. 

This  severe  check,  in  which  four  hundred  lives  were  lost, 
happened  on  the  last  day  of  July.  Murray  was  next  sent,  with 
twelve  hundred  men,  above  the  town  to  destroy  the  French 
ships  and  open  a  comnnmication  with  Amherst.  Twice  he 
attempted  a  landing  on  the  north  shore,  without  success;  at 
Deschambault,  a  place  of  refuge  for  women  and  children,  he 
learned  that  Niagara  had  surrendered,  that  the  French  had 
abandoned  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point.  The  eyes  of  WoKe 
were  strained  to  see  Amherst  approach.  Vain  hope!  The 
commander-in-chief,  though  opposed  by  no  more  than  three 
thousand  men,  w\as  loitering  at  Crown  Point ;  nor  did  even  a 
messenger  from  him  arrive.  Wolfe  was  to  struggle  alone  with 
difficulties  which  every  horn'  made  more  appalling.  The  numer- 
ous body  of  armed  men  imder  Montcalm  "could  not,"  he  said, 
"be  called  an  annv,"  but  the  French  had  the  strongest  coun- 
try, perhaps,  in  the  world  on  which  to  rest  the  defence  of  the 
town.  Their  boats  were  numerous,  and  weak  points  were 
guarded  by  floating  batteries ;  the  keen  eye  of  the  Indian  pre- 
vented suii)rise;  the  vigilance  and  hardihood  of  the  Canadians 
made  intreuchmeats  everywhere   necessary.      The  peasantiy 


1759. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA. 


507 
were  zealous  to  defend  tl.eir  homes,  language,  and  religion; 
old  inen  of  seventy  and  boys  of  iifteen  iired  at  the  English 
detaelunents  from  the  edges  of  the  wood;  every  one  able  to 
bear  arms  was  m  the  field.  Little  quarter  was  given  on  either 
s  de.  Thus  for  two  months  the  British  fleet  rode  idly  at  an- 
^;l  chor ;  the  army  lay  in  their  tents.  The  feeble  frame  of  Wolfe 
sunk  under  the  restlessness  of  anxious  inactivity 

Whxle  disabled  by  fever,  he  laid  before  the  brigadiers  three 
several  and  equally  desperate  methods  of  attacking  Montcahu 

ILh'  ^^tr     "'?  ''  ^"^'^P°^-     ^^^^t"^g  ^t  Monckton's 
quarteis    they  wisely  and   unanimously  gave   their  ophiions 

gauns  them  all  and  advised  to  convey  four  or  five  thousand 
men  above  the  town,  and  thus  draw  Montcahn  from  his  im- 
pregnable situation  to  an  open  action.  Attended  by  the  admi- 
ral, Wolfe  examined  once  more  the  citadel,  with  a  view  to  a 
general  assault     Although  every  one  of  the  five  passages  from 

ders  was  willing  to  joia  in  any  hazard  for  the  pubHc  service; 
_  but  I  could  not  propose  to  him,"  said  Wolfe,  "an  undertak- 
ing of  so  dangerous  a  nature  and  pi-omisingso  little  success." 
He  had  the  whole  force  of  Canada  to  oppose,  and,  by  the  nature 
of  ho  nver,  the  fleet  could  take  no  part  in  an  engagement. 
In  this  SI  uation,"  wrote  Wolfe  to  Pitt,  on  the  secoi^  of  Sep- 
tember, there  is  such  a  choice  of  difliculties  that  I  am  myself 
at  a  loss  how  to  determine.  The  affairs  of  Great  Britain  re- 
quire most  vigorous  measures;  but  then  the  courage  of  a  hand- 

l±f„  ^^r'l  "^T  '^f:^  ^'  '""''''^  «"^^  ^1^«^--  there  is  some 
hope  England  read  the  despatch  with  dismay,  and  feared  to 
hear  further  tidings.  ^  ^^  lo 

_     Wolfe  acquiesced  in  the  proposal  of  the  brigadiers.    Secur- 
ing the  posts  on  the  isle  of  Orleans  and  opposite  Quebec,  he 
inarched  with  the  army,  on  the  fifth  and  sixth  of  S>temb 
f  om  Point  Levi,  to  which  place  he  had  transferred  all  the 

oops  rom  Montmorenci,  and  embarked  them  in  transports 
hat  had  passed  the  town  for  the  purpose.  On  the  three  fol- 
owmg  days,  Adniiral  Holmes,  with  the  sliips,  ascended  the     ' 

ver  to  amuse  De  Bougainville,  who  had  been  sent  up  the  north 
saorc  to  watch  the  movements  of  the  British  armv  and  prevent 
a  landing.     ISew  France  began  to  believe  the  worst  daiiL^ers  of 


i    I 


1 


508    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA.    ei>.  i.;  on.  xiv. 


!i':'^  '{! 


I 


ft 


the  can.paign  over.  Levi,  the  second  officer  in  command,  wjis 
sent  to  protect  ]\rontreal,  with  a  detachment,  it  was  said,  of 
three  thousand  inen.  Summer  was  over,  and  the  Britisli  fleet 
nnist  soon  withdraw  from  the  river.  "My  constitution,"  Avrotc 
tlie  i^eneral  to  Iloldernesse,  just  four  days  before  his  death,  "is 
entirely  ruined,  without  the  consohition  of  liaving  done  any  con- 
siderable service  to  tiie  state,  and  without  any  prospect  of  it," 

13ut,  in  tlio  mean  time,  Wolfe  applied  himself  intently  to 
reconnoitring  the  north  shore  above  Quebec.  Nature  had 
given  liini  good  eyes,  as  well  as  a  warmth  of  temper  to  follow 
first  impressions,  lie  himself  discovered  the  cove  which  now 
bears  his  name,  where  the  bending  promontories  almost  form 
a  basin,  with  a  very  narrow  margin,  over  which  the  hill  rises 
precipitously,  lie  saw  the  path  that  wound  up  the  steep, 
though  so  narrow  that  two  men  could  hardly  march  in  it 
abreast;  and  he  knew,  by  the  number  of  tents  which  he 
counted  on  the  summit,  "-hat  the  Canadian  post  which  guarded 
it  could  not  exceed  a  hundred.  Here  he  resolved  to  land  his 
army  by  a  surprise.  To  mislead  the  enemy,  his  troops  were 
kept  far  above  the  town ;  while  Saunders,  as  if  an  attack  was 
intended  at  Beauport,  set  Cook,  the  great  mariner,  with  others, 
to  sound  the  water  and  plant  buoys  along  that  shore. 

The  day  and  night  of  the  twelfth  were  employed  in  prepa- 
rations. The  autunm  evening  was  bright ;  and  the  genei-al,  un- 
der the  clear  starlight,  visited  his  stations,  to  make  his  final  in- 
spection and  utter  his  last  words  of  encouragement.  As  he 
passed  from  ship  to  ship,  he  spoke  to  those  in  the  1)oat  with 
him  of  the  poet  Gray,  and  his  "  Elegy  in  a  C:!ountry  Church- 
yard," saying,  "  I  Avoidd  prefer  being  the  author  of  that  poem 
to  the  fflorv  of  beating  the  French  to-morrow;"  and,  while  the 
oars  struck  the  river  as  it  rippled  under  the  flowing  tide,  he 
repeated : 

The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power, 

And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave, 
Await  alike  the  inevitable  hour. 

The  ]iaths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave. 

Every  officer  knew  his  appointed  duty,  when,  at  one  o'clock 
in  the  morning  of  the  thirteenth  of  Septendier,  Wolfe,  Monck- 
ton,  and  Murrav,  and  about  half  the  forces,  set  off  in  boats, 


17C9. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA. 


509 

urn],  using  neitlier  sail  nor  oars,  glided  down  with  tJie  tide      I,, 
hree  quarters  of  an  liour  the  sla^^  followed;  and,  though  the 
uglit  had  become  dark,  aided  by  the  rapid  current,  they  reached 
he  cove  just  in  time  to  cover  the  landing.     Wolfe  and  tl.e 
troops  wzth   nm  leaped  on  shore  ;  the  light  hifantry,  who  found 
themselves  borne  l,y  the  cuiTent  a  little  below  the  intrenched 
l)ath,  clambered  up  the  steep  hill,  staying  themselves  by  the 
00  sand  boughs  of  the  n.ple  and  spn.ce  and  ash  trees'^thlt 
coveied  the  precii),tous  declivity,  and,  after  a  little  firino-  <lis. 
persed  the  picket  which  guarded  the  height;  tl.e  rest  aseei'ided 
Kifely  by  ho  pathway.    A  battery  of  four  g.ms  on  the  left  was 
.tbandoned  to  Colonel  Howe.    When  Townshend's  division  dis- 
embarked, the  English  had  already  gained  one  of  the  roads  to 
Quebec;  and  advancing  in  front  of  the  forest,  Wolfe  stood  at 
daybreak  with  his^ battalions  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  the 
battle-held  o   the  Celtic  and  Saxon  races  for  half  a  continent 

It  can  be  l)ut  a  small  party,  come  to  burn  a  few  houses 
and  retire,"  said  Montcalm,  in  amazement,  as  the  news  reached 
urn  in  las  intrenchments  the  other  side  of  the  St.  Charles- 
but,  obtaining  bettor  information,  "  Then,"  he  cried    "  they 
have  at  last  got  to  the  weak  side  of  this  miserable  mirrison  • 
we  must  give  battle  and  crush  them  before  m.d-day  "     And' 
before  ten,  the  two  armies,  equal  in  numbers,  each  being  com- 
posed of  less  than  five  thousand  men,  were  ranged  in  presence 
of  one  another  for  battle.     The  English,  not  easily  accessible 
Irom  intervening  shallow  ravines  and  rail-fences,  were  all  rcffu- 
ars  perfect  in  discipline,  terri1,le  in  their  fearless  enthusiasm 
tlirilhng  with  pride  at  their  m.miing's  success,  commanded  by 
a  man  whom  they  obeyed  with  confidence  and  love.    Montcalm 
bad  what  Wolfe  had  called  but  "  five  weak  French  battalions  " 
ot  less  than   two   thousand  men,   "mingled  with   disorderly 
peasantry,"  formed  on  commanding  ground.     The  French  had 
three  little  pieces  of  artillery  ;  the  English,  one  or  two      The 
two  armies  cannonaded  each  other  for  nearly  an  hour  •  when 
Montcalm,  having  summoned  Bougainville  to  his  aid,  and  de- 
spatched messenger  after  messenger  for  Vaudreuil,  who  had 
fifteen  hundred  men  at  the  camp,  to  come  up  before  he  should 
De  driven  from  the  ground,  end(^avored  to  Hank  the  British  and 
crowd  them  down  the  high  bank  of  the  river.    Wolfe  counter- 


1 1 


i    ! 


i   I 


510  CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,  kp.  i.  : 


en.  xiT. 


1759. 


'■i 


I 


acted  the  movement  by  detaching  Townshend  with  Amherst's 
regiment,  and  afterward  a  part  of  tlie  royal  Americans,  who 
formed  on  the  left  with  a  double  front. 

AVaiting  no  longer  for  more  troops,  Montcalm  led  the 
French  army  imjieti.ously  to  the  attack.  The  ill-disciplined 
companies  broke  by  their  precipitation  and  the  nnevenness  of 
the  ground,  and  fired  by  platoons,  without  unity.  Their  adver- 
saries, especially  the  forty-third  and  the  forty-seventh,  of  which 
Monclvton  stood  at  the  head  and  three  men  out  of  four  were 
Americans,  received  the  shock  \vith  cahnness;  and  after  having, 
at  Wolfe's  command,  reserved  their  fire  till  their  enemy  was 
within  forty  yards,  their  line  began  a  regular,  rapid,  and  exact 
discharge  of  musketry.  Montcalm  was  presjnt  everywhere, 
braving  danger,  wounded,  but  cheering  by  his  example.  Sen- 
nezergues,  the  second  in  command,  his  associate  in  gloiy  at 
Ticonderoga,  was  killed.  The  brave  but  untried  Canadians, 
flinching  from  a  hot  lire  in  the  open  field,  began  to  waver ; 
and,  so  soon  as  Wolfe,  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
twenty  eighth  and  the  Louisburg  grenadiers,  charged  \vith 
bayonets,  they  everywhere  gave  Avay.  Of  the  English  offi- 
cers, Carleton  was  wounded ;  Barre,  who  fought  near  Wolfe, 
received  in  the  head  a  ball  which  made  him  blind  of  one 
eye,  and  ultimately  of  both.  Wolfe,  as  he  led  the  charge, 
was  wounded  in  the  wrist ;  but,  still  pressing  forward,  he  re- 
ceived a  second  ball ;  and,  having  decided  the  day,  was  struck 
n  third  time,  and  mortally,  in  the  breast.  "  Support  me,"  he 
cried  to  an  officer  near  him  ;  "  let  not  ray  brave  fellows  see  me 
drop."  He  Avas  carried  to  the  rear,  and  they  brought  him 
Avatcr  to  quench  his  thirst.  "  They  ran !  they  run  !  "  spoke 
the  officer  on  whom  he  leaned.  "  Who  run?"  asked  Wolfe, 
as  his  life  was  fast  eb])ing.  "  The  French,"  replied  the  officer, 
"  give  way  everywhere."  "  Go,  one  of  you,  to  Colonel  Bur- 
ton," cried  the  expiring  hero  ;  "  bid  him  march  Webb's  regi- 
ment with  all  speed  to  Charles  river  to  cut  off  the  fugitives 
from  the  bridge."  *  Four  days  before,  he  liad  looked  forward 
to  early  death  Avith  dismay.  "  Noav,  God  be  praised,  I  die  in 
peace  : "  these  Avere  his  words  as  his  spirit  escaped  in  the  mo- 
ment of  his  glory.     Night,  silence,  the  nishing  tide,  veteran 

*  Historical  Journal  of  John  Knox,  ii.  79. 


ft'. 


disci  pi 
his  ba 
thcatn 
mentoi 
and  til 
seemin 
hours  I 
and,  ti] 
noon. 

Moi 

himself 

conunai 

Bougaii 

enemy. 

and  edu 

so  that  '. 

the  art  ( 

rashness 

well-spri 

struggle 

cold,  vig 

ful  of  hi 

example 

corruptio 

ball,  as  h 

gagemeni 

dians  in  t 

On  h. 

am  glad  c 

Ox  twelve 

not  live  t 

^var  he  sh 

might  be  ^ 

were  intn 

rison,  ask( 

keeping," 

for  me,  I 

for  death.' 

priac'Tiers  t 


1759. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA. 


511 

Ws  actio,,.  t,,au™„„  ,„,„     ^^„  ,„Zrt„X     - 
and^«l.„«  1,.,  day  with  great„c.,  eon.pfcted  it  wl  [S 

Monckton,  the  first  brigadier  aftor  o-vp.fl,.   r  .•       •  ,  • 

tue  art  of  wa,      J.a  ,„no„s,  j„st,  disinterested,  hopef,,!  even  to 
lasliness,  e,;gaoio,is  in  conncil,  swift  in  n„H„„  ,,•       '  , 
well-spring  of  I,old  designs;  lis  career  if r'         """^  ™'  " 
struggle  against  inexo,Sble    fes.  n       S,,?' '    "'  t  ™""'=^"' 

S  n     e    ;    ,e  T  "'i°"  •"      K"  '"'>'  "'  '"•""■•™  ^ana- 
O,    1       '      T        ■  •''''""'  Sat°. ''°  «« ,no,tally  wounded 

amg ld„7ir-l  "  T.T"""'  ""'*  "»«-asl;C''I 
am  glad  of  ,t,    he  cried ;  "  how  long  shall  I  survive » "    "  T™ 

o.  twelve  hours,  perhaps  less,"  "  go  „,„ch  the  te  e'r  •  I IZ 
not  hve  to  see  the  surrender  of  Onchcc  "  T  .,  '  ■,  . 
™  ..0  showed  tl„at  in  twelve  hL^s^lithe  tr"  p  ir:: h  n1 

risen        of       ,^^''«"  !''"">'».,•,  who  co,„,„a„ded  the  gar- 
■son   .isked  Ins  advjco  .about  dofendinir  the  citv  "T„  . 
keeping,"  he  ,.eplied,  "  I  e„,n,„end  the  honor  o    FrJe  ^Z 
Za^ff"  '".:  '"eLt  wit,,  God,  and    '-op  :%i„' 
tor  death.     Itaing  wntten  a  letter  reconmen.I,,  J  the  French 
Pnsoners  ,„  the  generosity  of  the  English,  his  last  W^,^ 


il: 


I'ii 


fr 


512    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.;  en.  xiv. 

given  to  tliu  offices  of  his  religiou,  and  at  live  the  uext  mom- 
iug  he  expired. 

The  day  of  tlie  battle  had  not  passed  when  Vaudreuil,  who 
had  no  capacity  for  war,  wrote  to  Ramsay  at  Quebec  not  to 
wait  for  an  assault,  but,  as  soon  as  his  provisions  v.-ere  ex- 
hausted, to  raise  the  white  flag  of  surrender.  "  AVe  have  cheer- 
fully sacrificed  our  fortunes  and  our  houses,"  said  the  citizens, 
"  but  we  cannot  expose  our  wives  and  children  to  a  massacre." 
At  a  council  of  war,  Fiedniont,  a  captain  of  artillery,  was  the 
only  one  who  wished  to  hold  out  to  the  last  extremity ;  and  on 
the  seventeenth  of  September,  before  the  English  had  con- 
structed batteries,  Ramsay  capitulated. 

America  rung  with  joy  ;  the  towns  were  bright  with  illu- 
minations, the  hills  with  bonfires ;  legislatures,  the  pulpit,  the 
press,  echoed  the  general  gladness;  provinces  and  families  gave 
thanks  to  God.  England,  too,  which  had  shared  the  despond- 
ency of  Wolfe,  triumphed  at  his  victory  and  wept  for  his 
death.  Joy,  grief,  curiosity,  amazement,  were  on  every  coun- 
tenance. When  the  parliament  assembled,  Pitt  modestly  put 
aside  the  praises  that  were  .showered  on  him.  "  The  more  a 
man  is  versed  in  business,"  said  he,  "  the  more  he  finds  the 
hand  of  Pi  /idence  everywhere."  "  I  will  own  I  have  a  zeal 
to  serve  my  country  beyond  what  the  weakness  of  my  frail 
body  admits  of ;  "  and  he  foretold  new  successes  at  sea.  No- 
vember fulfilled  his  predictions.  In  that  month.  Sir  Edward 
Ilawke  attacked  the  fleet  of  Constans  ofE  the  northern  coast  of 
France;  and,  though  it  retired  to  the  shelter  of  shoals  and 
rocks,  he  gained  the  battle  during  a  storm  at  night-fall. 


1759.  INVASION  OF  THE  TENNESSEE  VALLEY. 


613 


1 


If 


Pitt's  ^vdion- 


CHAPTER  XV. 

INVASION    OP    THE    VALLEY   OF   THE   TENNESSEE. 
I8TEATI0N   CONTINUED. 

1759-1760. 

The  capitulation  of  Quebec  was  received  by  Townshend  as 
though  the  achievement  had  been  his  own ;  and  his  official 
report  of  the  battle  left  out  the  name  of  Wolfe,  whom  he  in- 
du-ectlj  censured.  Hurrying  away  from  the  citadel,  which  he 
believed  untenable,  he  retur.ied  home,  like  Abercrombie,  Lou- 
doun, Amherst,  Gage,  and  so  many  more  of  his  profession,  to 
support  taxation  of  the  colonies  by  the  metropolis  as  a  neces- 
sary duty. 

In  Georgia,  Ellis,  the  able  governor,  who  had  great  influ- 
ence in  the  public  offices,  was  studying  how  the  colonies  could 
be  adrrnnistered  by  the  central  authoiity.  Of  South  Carolina, 
Lyttelton  broke  the  repose  by  a  contest  "to  regain  the  powers 
of  government  which  his  predecessors,"  as  he  said,  "had  un- 
faithfully given  away;"  and  he  awakened  a  war  with  the 
Cherokees  by  bringing  the  maxims  of  civilized  society  into 
conflict  with  their  unwritten  code. 

The  Cherokees  had  heretofore  been  in  friendship  with  the 
English,  as  Virginia  acknowledged,  in  1755,  by  a  deputation  to 
them  and  a  present.  In  1757,  their  warriors  volunteered  to 
protect  tlie  frontier  south  of  the  Potomac ;  yet,  after  they  had 
won  trophies  in  the  general  service,  they  would  have  been  left 
to  return  without  reward,  or  even  supplies  of  food,  but  for  the 
generosity  of  Washington  and  his  officers. 

The  parties  which  in  the  follomng  year  joined  the  expe- 
dition to  the  Ohio  were  neglected,  so  that  their  hearts  told 
them  to  return  to  their  highlands.     In  July  1758,  the  back- 

VOL.   II.— 33 


514:  CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA. 


Ki'.  1. ;  crT.  XV. 


:     r,i 


>         \\ 


'     I, 


It 


woodsmen  of  Virginia,  finding  that  their  lialf-starvud  allies 
on  tlieir  waj  home  took  what  tliey  needed,  seized  arms,  and 
in  three  Blvirniislies,  several  of   the  "heloveJ  men"  of  the 
Cherokees  wore  slain  and  scalped. 

The  wailing  of  the  women,  at  the  dawn  of  eacli  day  and  at 
the  gray  of  the  evening,  for  their  deceased  relatives,  i)rovokod 
the  nation  to  retaliate ;  and  the  chiefs  of  the  Cherokees  sent 
out  their  young  men  to  take  only  just  and  eciual  revenge. 
This  and  no  more  was  done. 

The  legislators  of  South  Carolina,  meeting  at  Charleston,  in 
March  1759,  refused  to  consider  hostilities  with  the  CherokeoH 
as  existing  or  to  be  apprehended  ;  but  Lyttelton  set  aside  their 
decision  as  an  invasion  of  the  prerogative,  which  alone  cinild 
treat  of  peace  or  war;  and  he  demanded  that  these  public 
avengers  "should  be  delivered  up  or  be  jmt  to  death  in  their 
nation,"  as  guilty  of  nmrders.  "  This  woidd  only  make  bad 
worse,"  answered  the  red  men ;  "  the  great  warrior  will  never 
consent  to  it ; "  at  the  same  time  they  entreated  peace.  "  We 
live  at  present  in  great  harmony,"  wrote  Demere  from  Fort 
Loudoun  ;  "  and  there  are  no  bad  talks." 

Tranquillity  and  confidence  were  returning ;  but,  in  ol)edi- 
ence  to  orders,  Demere  insisted  on  the  surrender  or  execution 
of  the  oifending  chiefs  of  Settico  and  Tellico,  while  Coytmore, 
at  Fort  Prince  George,  intercepted  all  ammunition  and  mer- 
chandise on  their  way  to  the  U])})er  nation.  Consternation 
spread  along  the  mountain-sides ;  the  hand  of  the  young  men 
grasped  at  the  tomahawk ;  the  warriors  spoke  much  together 
concerning  Settico  and  Tellico,  and  hostile  S2)eeche,s  were  sent 
round.  Still  they  despatched  to  Charleston  a  letter  with 
friendly  strings  of  wampum,  while  the  middle  and  the  lower 
settlements,  which  had  taken  no  part  in  the  expedition  com- 
plained of,  sent  their  belts  of  white  shells. 

Lyttelton  rigorously  enforced  the  interruption  of  trade  as  a 
chastisement ;  and  added  :  "  If  you  desire  peace  with  us,  and 
will  send  deputies  to  me  as  the  mouth  of  your  nation,  I  prom- 
ise you,  you  shall  come  and  return  in  safety." 

The  Indians  had  grown  dependent  on  civilization ;  and  to 
withhold  supplies  was  like  disarming  them.  The  English, 
said  they,  would  leave  us  defenceless,  that  they  may  utterly 


f- 


1759.  INVASION  OF  THE  TENNESSEE  VALLEY.  515 

dofltroy  us.  Belts  circulated  more  and  more  among  the  vil- 
lages. They  narrowly  watched  the  roads,  that  no  white  num 
nnght  pass.  ''  We  have  nothing  to  do,"  said  some  among 
them,  wdd  with  rage,  "but  to  kill  the  white  people  here,  and 
carry  their  scalps  to  the  French,  who  will  8ui)ply  us  with  plenty 
of  anununition  and  everything  else."  The  nation  was,  how- 
ever, far  from  heing  united  agfunst  the  English ;  but  a  gen- 
eral distrust  prevailed. 

Lyttelton  instantly  gave  ordei-s  to  the  colonels  of  three  reod- 
ments  of  militia  nearest  the  frontier  to  fire  an  alann  and  m- 
semble  their  corps;  called  out  all  the  regulars  and  provincials 
in  Charleston;   asked  aid  of  the  governors  of  Georgia  and 
mrth  Carolina;  invited  Virginia  to  send  re-enforcements  and 
supplies  to  Fort  Loudoun  by  the  road  from  that  province ; 
sought  the  active  alliance  of  the  Chicasas  as  ancient  enemies  to 
the  French ;  of  the  Catawbas,  the  Tuscaroras,  and  even  the 
Creeks,  whose  hostility  he  pretended  to  have  feared ;  and  then 
convening  the  legislature,  on  the  iifth  of  October  sent  a  mes- 
sage to  the  asseml^ly  for  su])plies.     They  replied  hy  an  ad- 
dress, "  unanimously  desiring  him  to  defer  a  declaration  of 
war."     He  readily  consented,  promising  that  "he  would  do 
nothing  to  prevent  an  accommodation;"  on  which  the  assem- 
bly made  grants  of  money,  and  provided  for  calling  fifteen 
hundred  men  into  service,  if  necessary.     The  perfidious  gov- 
ernor reproved  them  for  the  scantiness  of  the  supply ;  and, 
breaking  his  promise,  not  yet  a  day  old,  he  announced  that 
"  he  should  persevere  in  his  intended  measures." 

On  the  twelftli  of  October,  he  ordered  the  alarm  to  be  ex- 
tended to  all  parts  of  the  province  where  it  liad  not  been  be- 
fore ;  and  "  one  half  of  the  militia  was  drafted  to  be  in  readi- 
ness to  repel  any  invasion  or  suppress  any  insurrection  that 
might  happen  during  his  absence." 

But  hardly  had  the  word  been  spoken  when,  on  the  seven- 
teenth, Oconostata,  the  great  warrior  himself,  with  thirty  other 
of  the  most  honored  men  from  the  upper  and  lower  towns,  rely- 
ing on  their  safe  conduct  from  the  governor,  arrived  in  Charles- 
ton to  deplore  all  deeds  of  violence,  and  to  say  that  their  nation 
truly  loved  peace.  Bull,  tlie  lieuten.mt-governor,  urged  the  wis- 
dom of  making  an  agreement  before  more  blood  should  be  spilt. 


i 


1:1 


!|:;    M    ; 


r 


1-.   I 


I 


516    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    bp.  i.  ;  ou.  xv. 

*'  [  iim  come,"  said  Oconostata  in  council,  on  tlio  eigliteonth, 
"  to  hearken  to  what  you  liave  to  say,  and  to  deliver  words  of 
friendsliii)."  But  Lyttelton  would  not  Rpcak  to  them,  «a}ing: 
"  I  did  not  invite  you  to  come  down ;  I  only  permitted  you  to 
do  HO  ;  therefore,  vou  arc  to  expect  no  talk  from  me  till  I  hear 
what  you  have  to  Hay." 

The  next  day,  the  proud  Oconostata  condescended  to  re- 
count what  liad  been  ill  done,  explained  its  causes,  declared 
that  the  jjjreat  civil  chief  of  the  Cherokees  loved  and  respected 
tlic  English,  and,  making  an  offering  of  deer-skins,  and  plead- 
ing for  a  renewal  of  tratle,  he  added  for  himself :  "  1  love  the 
white  people ;  they  and  the  Indians  shall  not  hurt  one  another ; 
I  reckon  myself  as  one  with  you." 

Tiftoe  of  Keowee  complained  of  Coytmorc,  the  officer  in 
command  at  Fort  Prince  (ireorge,  as  intcmi)crate  and  licentious ; 
but  still  he  would  hold  the  English  fast  by  the  hand.  The 
liead  warrior  of  Estatoo  would  have  "  the  trade  go  on,  and  no 
more  blood  spilt."  Killianaca,  the  Black  Dog  of  Iliwassie, 
was  able  to  say  that  no  English  blood  had  over  been  spilt  by 
the  young  men  of  his  village ;  and  ho  gave  assurances  of  peace 
from  all  the  towns  in  his  region.  But  the  governor,  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  the  lieutenant-governor,  four  of  his  coun- 
cil, and  the  express  request  of  a  utianimous  assembly,  answered 
them :  "  I  am  now  going  with  a  great  many  of  my  wai-riors 
to  your  nation  to  demand  satisfaction.  If  you  will  not  give  it 
when  I  come,  I  shall  take  it." 

Oconostata  and  those  with  him  claimed  for  themselves  the 
benefit  of  the  safe  conduct  under  which  they  had  come  down. 
And  Lyttelton  spoke,  concealing  his  purpose  under  words  more 
false  than  ^  le  wiles  of  the  savage :  "  You,  Oconostata,  and  all 
with  you,  b^.Jl  return  in  safety  to  your  own  country;  it  is 
not  my  intention  to  hurt  a  hair  of  your  head.  There  is  but 
one  way  by  which  I  can  insure  your  safety ;  you  shall  go  with 
my  warriors,  and  they  shall  j^rotect  you." 

On  Friday,  the  twenty-seventh,  Lyttelton,  with  the  Chero- 
kee envoys,  left  Charleston  to  repair  to  Congaree,  the  gather- 
ing-place for  the  militia  of  Carolina.  Tliither  came  Christo- 
pher Gadsden,  born  in  1724,  long  the  colonial  representative 
of  Charleston,  dear  to  his  constituents;  at  whose  instance,  and 


I 


^^l»     j  i«l 


I 


*  ■ 
I* 


1759-17C0.    INVASION  OF  THE  TENNESSEE  VALLEY.         517 

under  whoso  coiTimand,  an  artillery  company  had  juRt,  been 
formed,  in  a  j)r{)vincu  which  till  then  had  not  had  a  mounted 
tield-i>iece.  There,  too,  waa  Frauci.s  Marion,  aw  yet  an  untried 
Boldier,  just  .six-and-twenty,  the  youngest  of  live  sons  of  an 
impovcriHhed  i)]anter;  reserved  and  silent;  small  in  stature, 
and  of  a  Hlender  frame;  so  temperate  that  he  drank  only 
water;  elastic,  j)ei:sevcring,  and  of  Hincen\^t  purity  of  soul. 
\  et  the  state  of  the  troops,  both  as  to  equipments  and  temper, 
was  such  as  might  have  been  exi>ectc(l  from  the  suddenness 
of  their  summons  to  the  field  against  the  judgment  of  their 
legislature.  It  was  still  hoped  that  there  would  bo  no  war. 
But  before  leaving  Congan*,  Oconostata  and  his  associates 
were  arrested,  thov.gli  their  persons  were  sacred  by  the  laws  of 
savage  and  of  civilized  man  ;  and,  on  arriving  at  Fort  Prince 
George,  they  were  crowded  into  a  hut  hardly  large  enough  for 
six  of  them. 

To  Attakulla-knlla,  the  Little  Caii:>entcr,  an  old  mo.,  who 
in  1730  had  been  in  England,  Imt  now  was  devoid  of  influence 
in  the  tribe,  Lyttelton,  on  the  eightec  ;h  of  J^ecember,  pro- 
nounced a  long  speech,  rehearsing  the  conditions  of  theii- 
treaty.  "  Twenty-four  men  of  your  nation,"  said  he,  "  I  le- 
mand  to  be  delivered  up  to  me,  to  be  put  to  death,  or  other- 
wise disposed  of,  as  I  shall  think  lit.  Your  people  have  killed 
that  number  of  ours,  and  more  ;  and,  therefore,  that  is  the  least 
I  will  accept  of.  To-morrow  morning  I  shall  expect  your  an- 
swer." "  I  have  ever  been  the  firai  friend  of  the  English," 
answered  the  chief ;  "  I  will  ever  continue  so ;  but,  for  giving 
up  the  men,  we  have  no  authority  one  over  another." 

Yet  after  the  governor  had  exchanged  Oconostata  and  one 
or  two  more  for  othf;r  Indians,  he  sent  again  to  Attakulla-k-ulla, 
and,  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  December,  procured  the  signature 
of  six  Cherokees  to  a  treaty  of  peace,  which  seemed  to  sanction 
the  governor's  retainii'.g  the  imprisoned  envoys  as  hostages  till 
four-and-twenty  men  should  be  delivered  up.  It  was  further 
covenanted  that  the  French  should  not  l)e  received  in  their 
towns,  and  that  the  English  traders  should  be  safe. 

This  treaty  was  not  made  by  duly  authorized  chiefs,  nor 
ratified  in  council ;  nor  could  Indian  usage  give  effect  to  its 
conditions.    Hostages  ai-e  uukuo^vn  in  the  forest,  where  pris- 


I  f 


ii|"ifjft' 


1     ! 


,tm&i^mm«M 


518     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.;  ou.  xv. 

oners  are  the  slaves  of  their  captors.  Lyttelton,  in  fact,  vio- 
lated the  word  he  had  plighted,  and  retained  in  prison  the 
ambassadors  of  peace,  true  friends  to  the  English,  "  the  beloved 
men,"  of  the  Cherokees,  who  had  come  to  him  under  his  own 
safe  conduct.  Yet  he  gloried  in  having  btained  concessions 
such  as  savage  man  had  never  before  granted ;  and,  returning 
to  Charleston,  took  to  himself  the  honor  of  a  triumphant  entry. 

The  Cherokees  longed  to  secure  peace ;  but  the  young 
warriors,  whose  names  were  already  honored  in  the  glades  of 
Tennessee,  could  not  be  surrendered  to  death  or  servitude; 
and  Oconostata  resolved  to  rescue  the  hostages.  T)ie  com- 
mandant at  Fort  Frince  George  was  lured  to  a  dark  th.cket  by 
the  river  side,  and  was  shot  by  Indians  in  an  ambush.  The 
gaiTison,  in  their  anger,  butchered  every  one  of  their  prisoners. 

At  the  news  of  the  massacre,  tlie  villages,  of  which  there 
was  scarce  one  that  did  not  wail  for  a  chief,  quivered  with 
anger,  like  a  chafed  rattlesnake  in  the  heats  of  midsummer. 
The  "  spirits,"  said  they,  "  of  our  murdered  brothers  are  flying 
around  us,  screaming  for  vengeance."  The  mountains  echoed 
the  war-song ;  and  the  braves  dashed  upon  the  frontiers  for 
scalps,  even  to  the  skirts  of  Ninety-Six.  In  their  attack  on 
that  fort,  several  of  them  feU.  "  We  fatten  our  dogs  with 
their  carcasses,"  wrote  Francis  to  Lyttelton ;  "  and  display  their 
scalps,  neatly  ornamented,  on  the  tops  of  our  bastions."  Yet 
Fort  ^joudoun,  on  the  Tennessee,  was  beyond  the  reach  of  suc- 
cor. From  Louisiana  the  Cherokees  obtained  military  stores ; 
and,  extending  their  alliance,  they  exchanged  with  the  restless 
Muskohgees  the  swans'  wings  painted  with  red  and  black,  and 
crimsoned  tomahawks  tliat  were  the  emblems  of  war. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Carolina  legislature,  in  February 
1760,  the  delegates,  still  more  alarmed  at  the  unwarrantable 
interference  of  Lyttelton  with  the  usages  of  colonial  liberty, 
first  of  all  vindicated  "  their  birtln-ights  as  British  subjects," 
and  resisted  "  the  violation  of  undoubted  privileges."  But  the 
lords  of  trade  never  could  find  words  strong  enough  to  express 
their  approbation  of  his  whole  conduct ;  and  he  was  transferred 
from  South  Cai-oHna  to  the  more  lucrative  government  of 
Jamaica. 

In  xipril.  General  Amherst  detached  from  the  central  army 


1760, 


INVASION  OF  THE  TENNESSEE  VALLEY. 


519 


that  had  conquered  Ohio  six  hundred  Highlanders  aud  six 
hundred  royal  Americans  under  Colonel  Montgomery,  after- 
ward Lord  Eglinton,  and  Major  Grant,  to  strike  a  sudden  blow 
at  the  Cherokees  and  return.  At  Ninety-Six,  near  the  end  of 
May,  they  joined  seven  hundred  Carolina  rangers,  among  whom 
"William  Moultrie,  and,  as  some  think,  Marion,  served  as  officers. 

On  the  first  day  of  June,  the  army  moved  onwa^'d  through 
the  woods  to  surprise  Estatoe.  The  baying  of  a  watch-dog 
alanned  the  village  of  Little  Keowee,  when  the  English  rushed 
upon  its  people,  and  killed  nearly  all  except  women  and  children. 

Early  in  the  morning  they  arrived  at  Estatoe,  which  its  in- 
habitants had  but  just  abandoned,  leaving  their  mats  still  warm. 
The  vale  of  Keowee  is  famed  for  its  beauty  and  fertility,  ex- 
tending for  seven  or  eight  miles,  till  a  high,  narrow  ridge  of 
hills  comes  down  on  each  side  to  the  river.  Below  the  ridge 
it  opens  for  ten  or  twelve  miles  more.  This  lovely  region 
was  the  delight  of  the  Cherokees ;  on  the  adjacent  hills  stood 
their  habitations,  and  the  rich  level  ground  beneatL  bore 
their  fields  of  maize,  all  clambered  over  by  the  proKfic  bean. 
The  river  now  flowed  in  gentle  meanders,  now  with  arrowy 
swiftness,  or  beat  against  hills  that  are  the  abutments  of  loftier 
mountains.  Every  village  of  the  Cherokees  within  this  beau- 
tiful country,  Estatoe,  Qnalatchee,  and  Conasatchee  with  its 
stockaded  town-house,  was  first  plundered  and  then  destroyed 
by  fire.  The  Indians  were  plainly  observed  on  the  tops  of  the 
mountains,  gazing  at  the  flames.  For  years,  the  half -charred 
rafters  of  their  dwellings  might  be  seen  on  the  desolate  hill- 
sides. "  I  could  not  help  pitying  them  a  little,"  M-rites  Grant ; 
"their  villages  were  agreeably  situated;  their  houses  neatly 
built ;  there  were  everywhere  astonishing  magazines  of  corr, 
which  were  all  consumed."  The  surprise  was  in  every  town 
almost  equal,  for  the  whole  was  the  work  of  a  few  hours ;  the 
Indians  had  no  time  to  save  even  what  they  valued  most,  but 
left  for  the  pillagers  money  and  Avatches,  warapiun  and  skins. 
From  sixty  to  eighty  Cherokees  were  killed ;  forty,  chiefly 
women  and  children,  were  made  prisoners. 

Resting  at  Fort  Prince  George,  Montgomery  sent  Tiftoe 
and  the  old  warrior  of  Estatoe  through  the  upper  and  middle 
tovrTis,  to  summon  their  head  men  to  treat  of  peace.     But  the 


I  |i 


520     OOXQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA. 


EP.  I. ;  on.  XV. 


I!     >! 


chiefs  of  the  Cherokees  gave  no  heed  to  the  message ;  and  the 
British  army  prepared  to  pass  the  barriers  of  the  Alleghany. 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  June  17C0,  he  marched  through  the 
Blue  Kidge  at  the  Eabun  Gap,  and  made  his  encampment  at 
the  deserted  town  of  Stecoe.  The  royal  Scots  and  Highlanders 
trod  the  dangerous  defiles  with  fearless  alacrity,  and  seemed 
refreshed  by  coming  into  the  presence  of  mountains. 

On  the  morning  of  the  twenty-seventh,  the  party  began 
their  march  early,  having  a  distance  of  eighteen  miles  to  travel 
to  the  town  of  Etchowee,  the  nearest  of  the  middle  settlements 
of  the  Cherokees.  "  Let  Montgomery  be  wary,"  wrote  Wash- 
ington; "he  has  a  subtle  enemy,  that  may  give  him  most 
trouble  when  he  least  expects  it."  The  ai-my  passed  down 
the  valley  of  the  Little  Tennessee,  along  the  mountain  stream 
which,  taking  its  rise  in  Rabun  coimty  in  Georgia,  flows 
through  Macon  coimty  in  j^orth  CaroKna.  Not  far  from 
Franklin,  their  path  lay  along  the  muddy  river  mth  its  steep, 
clay  banks,  through  a  plain  covered  with  the  dense  thicket, 
overlooked  on  one  side  by  a  high  mountain,  and  on  the  other 
by  luUy,  uneven  ground.  At  this  nai-row  pass,  which  was  then 
called  Crow's  creek,  the  Cherokees  emerged  from  an  ambush. 
Morrison,  a  gallant  officer,  was  killed  at  the  head  of  the  ad- 
vanced party.  But  the  Highlanders  and  provincials  drove  the 
enemy  from  their  lurking-places ;  and,  returning  to  their  yeUs 
three  huzzas  and  three  waves  of  their  bomiets  and  hats,  they 
chased  them  from  height  and  hollow.  At  the  ford,  the  army 
passed  the  river ;  and,  protected  by  it  on  their  right,  and  by  a 
flankmg-party  on  the  left,  treading  a  path  sometimes  so  narrow 
that  they  were  obliged  to  march  in  Indian  file,  fired  upon  from 
the  rear,  and  twice  from  the  front,  they  were  not  collected  at 
Etchowee  till  midnight,  and  after  a  loss  of  twenty  men,  besides 
seventy-six  wounded. 

For  one  day,  and  one  day  only,  Montgomery  rested  in  the 
heart  of  the  Alleghanies.  If  he  had  advanced  to  relieve  the 
siege  of  Fort  Loudovm,  he  must  have  abandoned  his  wounded 
men  and  his  baggage.  On  the  following  night,  deceiving  the 
Cherokees  by  kindlmg  lights  at  Etchowee,  the  army  retreated ; 
and,  marching  twenty-five  miles,  they  never  halted  till  they 
came  to  War-Woman's  creek,  an  upland  tributary  of  the  Savan- 


f 


1760.  INVASION  OF  THE  TENNESSEE  VALLEY.  521 

nah.    On  the  thirtietli,  they  crossed  tlie  Oconee  Mountain,  and 
on  the  iirst  day  of  July  reached  Fort  Prince  George. 

The  retreat  of  Montgomery  was  the  abandonment  of  the 
famished  Fort  Loudoun.    By  the  unanimous  resolve  of  the 
officers,  James  Stuart,  afterward  Indian  agent  for  the  southern 
division,  repaired  to  Chotee,  and  agreed  on  terms  of  capitula- 
tion, which  neither  party  observed ;  and,  on  the  morning  of 
the  eighth  of  August,  Oconostata  himself  received  the  surren- 
der of  the  fort,  and  sent  its  garrison  of  two  hundred  on  their 
way  to  Carolina.     The  next  day,  at  Telliquo,  the  fugitives 
were  surrounded ;  Demere  and  three  other  officers,  with  twen- 
ty-three privates,  were  killed.     The  Cherokee  warriors  were 
very  exact  in  that  number,  for  it  was  the  number  of  their 
hostages  who  had  beea  slain  in  prison.     The  rest  were  brought 
back  and  distributed  among  the  tribes      Their  English  pris- 
oners, including  captives  carried  from  the  back  settlements  of 
North  and  South  Carolina,  were  thought  to  have  amounted  to 
near  three  hundred. 

Having  fulfilled  the  letter  of  his  instructions  by  reaching 
the  country  of  the  Cherokees,  Montgomery,  slighting  the 
unanimous  entreaty  of  the  general  assembly  for  protection  of 
the  back  settlements,  and  leaving  only  four  companies  of  royal 
Scots,  embarked  in  all  haste  for  Halifax  by  way  of  New '  'ork. 
Aitenvard,  in  his  place  in  the  house  of  commons,  h.  acted 
with  those  who  thought  the  Americans  factious  in  peace  and 
feeble  in  war. 

EUis,  the  governor  of  Georgia,  wiser  than  Lyttelton,  se- 
cui-ed  the  good-will  of  the  Creeks. 


'!     Jitf 


522    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  en.  xvi. 


ir.  r  I, 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 

POSSESSION    TAKEN    OF    TUB    COUNTRY    ON    THE     LAKES.      PITt's 
ADMINISTRATION    CONTINUED. 

1760. 

On  the  inactivity  of  Amherst,  Levi,  Montcalm's  snccessor, 
concentrated  the  remaining  forces  of  France  at  Jacques  Cartier 
for  the  recoA^ery  of  Quebec.  George  Townshend,  tlien  in  Eng- 
land, publicly  rejected  the  opinion  "  that  it  was  able  to  hold 
out  a  considerable  siege ; "  and  Murray,  preparing  for  "  the 
last  extremity,"  selected  the  isle  of  Orleans  as  his  refuge. 

As  soon  as  the  river  opened,  Levi  proceeded,  Avith  an  army 
of  less  than  ten  thousand  men,  to  besiege  Quebec.  On  the 
twenty-eighth  of  April,  Murray,  marching  out  from  the  city, 
left  the  advantageous  ground  which  he  first  occupied,  and 
hazarded  an  attack  near  Sillery  Wood.  The  advance-guard, 
under  Bourlamarque,  returned  it  Avith  ardor.  In  danger  of 
being  surrounded,  Murray  was  obliged  to  fly,  leaving  "liis 
very  fine  train  of  artillery,"  and  losing  a  thousand  men.  The 
French  appear  to  have  lost  about  three  hundred,  though  Mur- 
ray's report  increased  it  more  than  eightfold.  During  the 
next  two  days,  Le\d  opened  trenches  against  the  town ;  but  the 
frost  delayed  the  works.  The  English  garrison,  reduced  to 
twenty-two  hundred  effective  men,  labored  with  alacrity ; 
women,  and  even  cripples,  were  set  to  light  work.  In  the 
French  army,  not  a  word  would  be  hstened  to  of  the  possibility 
of  failure.  But  Pitt  had  foreseen  and  prepared  for  all.  A 
fleet  at  his  bidding  went  to  relieve  the  city ;  and  to  his  wife 
he  was  able  to  write  in  June :  "  Join,  my  love,  with  me,  in 
most  humble  and  grateful  thanks  to  the  Almighty.  Swanton 
arrived  at  Quebec  in  the  Vanguard  on  the  fifteenth  of  Mayj 


mi  III  Mil 


k'r. 


1760.    SHALL  CANADA  BE  RETAINED  AT  THE  PEACE?  523 

and  destroyed  all  t^e  French  shipping,  six  or  seven  in  number. 
The  siege  was  raised  on  the  seventeenth  with  every  happy  cir- 
cumstance. The  enemy  left  their  camp  standing ;  abandoned 
forty  pieces  of  cannon.  Happy,  happy  day !  My  joy  and 
hurry  are  inexpressible." 

When  the  spring  opened,  Amherst  had  no  difficulties  to 
encounter  in  taking  possession  ot  Canada  but  such  as  he  him- 
self should  create.     A  country  suffering  from  a  four  years' 
scarcity,  a  disheartened  peasantry,  five  or  six  battalions,  wasted 
by  incredible  services  and  not  reci-uited  from  France,  offered 
no  opposition.     Amherst  led  the  main  army  of  ten  thousand 
men  by  way  of  Oswego ;  though  the  labor  of  getting  there 
was  greater  than  that  of  proceeding  directly  upon  Montreal. 
He  descended  the  St.  Lawrence  cautiously,  taking  possession 
of  the  feeble  works  at  Ogdensburg.     Treating  the  helpless 
Canadians  with  humanity,  and  with  no  loss  of  livet  except 
in  passing  the  rapids,  on   the  seventh  of  September  1760,  he 
met  before  Montreal  the  army  under  Murray.     The  next  day, 
Haviland  arrived  with  forces  from  Crow.:  Point;  and,  in  the 
view  of  the  three  annies,  the  flag  of  St.  George  was  raised  in 
triumph  over  the  gate  of  Montreal,  the  admired  island  of 
Jacques  Cartier,  the  ancient  hearth  of  the  coimcil-fires  of  the 
Wyandots,  the  village  consecrated  by  the  Eomish  church  to 
the  Virgin  Mary,  a  site  connected  by  rivers  and  lakes  with  an 
inland  world,  and  needing  only  a  milder  climate  to  be  one  of 
the  most  attractive  spots  on  the  continent.     The  capitulation  in- 
cluded all  Canada,  which  Avas  said  to  extend  to  the  crest  of  land 
dividing  branches  of  Lakes  Erie  and  Michigan  from  those  of 
the  Miami,  the  Wabash,  and  the  Illinois  rivers.     Property  and 
religion  were  cared  for  in  the  terms  of  surrender ;  but  for  civil 
liberty  no  stipulation  was  thought  of.     Canada,  under  the 
forms  of  a  despotic  administration,  came  into  the  possession  of 
England  by  conquest;  and  in  a  conquered  country  the  law 
was  held  to  be  the  pleasure  of  the  Idng. 

On  tlie  fifth  day  after  the  capitulation,  Eogers  departed 
with  two  hundred  rangers  to  carry  English  banners  to  the 
upper  posts.  In  the  chilly  days  of  November,  they  embarked 
upon  Lake  Erie,  being  the  fii-st  considerable  party  of  men 
whose  tongue  \vas  the  English  that  ever  spread  sails  on  its 


'  ij  •  '  I 


'  'f  (Mi 


m 


I 


524:  CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,  kp.  i.  ;  on.  :^vi. 


waters.  The  Indians  on  tlio  lakes  were  at  jDeace,  united 
under  Pontiae,  the  great  chief  of  the  Ottawas,  happy  in  n 
country  fruitful  of  corn  and  abounding  in  game.  The  Ameri- 
cans were  met  at  the  mouth  of  a  river  by  a  dc])i"atio  of 
Ottawas.  "Pontiae,"  said  they,  "is  the  chief  and  lord  of  the 
country  you  are  in ;  wait  till  he  can  see  you." 

When  Pontiae  and  Rogers  met,  the  savage  chieftain  asked  : 
"  How  have  you  dared  to  enter  my  country  without  my  leave  'i " 
"  I  come,"  replied  the  English  agent,  "  with  no  design  against 
the  Indians,  but  to  remove  the  French;"  and  he  gave  the 
wampum  of  peace.  But  Pontiae  returned  a  belt,  which  ar- 
rested the  march  of  the  party  till  his  leave  should  be  granted. 

The  next  day,  the  chief  sent  prosents  o^  bags  of  parched 
corn,  and  at  a  second  meeting  smoked  the  calumet  vnth  the 
American  leader,  inviting  him  to  pas.s  onwai'd,  and  ordi  ring 
an  escort  of  warriors  to  assist  in  driving  his  herd  of  oxen  alono- 
the  shore.  The  tribes  south-east  of  Erie  were  told  ihat  the 
strangers  came  with  his  consent;  yet,  while  ho  studied  to  in- 
form himself  how  wool  could  be  changed  into  cloth,  how  iron 
could  be  extracted  from  the  earth,  how  warriors  could  be  dis- 
ciplined like  the  English,  he  spoke  as  an  intLpendent  prince, 
who  would  not  brook  the  presence  of  white  men  within  his 
dominions  but  at  his  pleasure.  After  this  inteiwiew,  Rogers 
took  possession  of  Detroit. 

England  began  hostilities  for  Nova  Scotia  nid  the  Ohio. 
These  she  had  secured,  and  had  added  Canada  and  Guada- 
loupe.  "I  will  snatch  at  the  first  moment  of  peace,"  said 
Pitt.  "  The  desire  of  my  heart,"  said  George  II.  to  parlia- 
ment, "  is  to  see  a  stop  i>ut  to  the  effusion  of  blood ; "  and  the 
public  mind  was  discussing  what  conquests  should  be  retained. 

"  We  have  had  bloodshed  enough,"  urged  Pulteney,  earl  of 
Bath,  who,  when  in  the  house  of  commons,  had  been  cherished 
in  America  as  the  friend  of  its  hljerties,  and  now,  in  liis  old 
age,  pleaded  for  the  tennination  of  a  truly  national  war  by 
a  solid  and  reasonable  peace.  "Our  North  American  con- 
quests," said  he,  "  can  not  bo  retaken.  Give  up  none  of  them, 
or  you  lay  the  foundation  of  another  war.  Unless  we  would 
choose  to  be  obliged  to  keep  great  bodies  of  troops  in  America, 
in  full  peace,  we  can  never  leave  the  French  any  footing  in 


me: 


h 


^^^^^^^^^^■■^WyB  I ' 


1760.    SUALL  CANADA  BE   RETAINED  AT  THE  PEACE?  525 

Canada.  Not  Senegal  and  Goree,  nor  even  Guadaloupe,  ought 
to  be  insisted  upon  as  a  condition  of  peace,  provided  Canada 
bu  left  to  us."  "North  America"  was  of  "infinite  conse- 
quence," for,  by  its  increasing  inhabitants,  it  would  consume 
British  manufactures ;  by  its  trade,  employ  innumerable  British 
ships;  by  its  provisions,  support  the  sugar  islands;  by  its 
products,  fit  out  the  whole  navy  of  England. 

Peace,  too,  was  to  be  desired  in  behalf  of  England's  ally, 
the  only  Protestant  sovereign  in  Germany  who  could  preserve 
the  privileges  of  his  religion  from  being  trampled  under  foot. 
"How  calmly,"  said  Bath,  "the  king  of  Prussia  possesses  him- 
self under  distress !  how  ably  he  can  extricate  himself  1 "  hav- 
ing "  amazing  resources  in  his  own  unbounded  genius."    «  The 
warm  support  of  tlie  Protestant  nation"  of  Great  Britain  must 
be  called  foi-th,  or  "the  war  begim  to   -rest  Silesia  from  him" 
will,  « in  the  end,  l)e  found  to  be  a  m  ,       to  "  overturn  the  Hb- 
erties  and  religion  of  Gennany."    Peace  was,  moreover,  to  be 
solicited  from  love  to  poUtical  freedom.     The  increase  of  the 
navy,  army,  and  pubUc  debt,  and  the  consequent  influence  of 
the  crown,  were  "much  too  great  for  the  independence  of  the 
constitution." 

But  William  Burke,  the  kinsman  and  friend,  and  often  the 
associate,  of  Edmund  Burke,  found  argiunents  for  retainino- 
Guadaloupe,  in  the  opportunity  it  would  afford  of  profitable 
mvestment,  the  richness  of  its  soil,  the  number  of  its  slaves, 
tlie  absence  of  all  rivalry  between  England  and  a  tropical  island. 
Besides,  he  added,  «if  the  people  of  our  colonies  find  no  check 
from  Canada,  they  will  extend  themselves  almost  without  bound 
into  the  inland  parts.  They  will  increase  infinitely  from  all 
causes.  What  will  be  the  consequence,  to  have  a  numerous, 
hardy,  independent  people,  possessed  of  a  strong  country,  com- 
mimicating  little  or  not  at  all  with  England? 

"By  eagerly  grasping  at  extensive  territory,  we  may  run 
the  nsk,  and  in  no  very  distant  period,  of  losing  what  we  now 
possess.  A  neighbor  that  keeps  us  in  some  awe  is  not  always 
the  worst  of  neighbors.  So  that,  far  from  sacrificing  Guada- 
loupe to  Canada,  perhaps,  if  we  might  have  Canada  without 
any  sacrifice  at  all,  we  ought  not  to  desire  it.  There  should  be 
a  balance  of  power  in  America." 


i 

1  1 
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ij' 

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1 

ij 

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ill! 


526    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  xvi. 

Private  letters  from  Guadaloiipe  gave  warning  that  the  ac- 
quisition of  Canada  would  strengthen  America  to  revolt.  "  One 
can  foresee  these  events  clearly,"  said  the  unnamed  writer ;  "  it 
is  no  gift  of  prophecy.  It  is  a  natural  and  unavoidable  conse- 
quence. The  islands,  from  their  weakness,  can  never  revolt ;  but, 
if  we  acquire  all  Canada,  we  shall  soon  find  North  America  itself 
toopowerful  and  too  populous  to  be  governed  byus  at  adistance." 

If  Canada  were  annexed,  "  the  Americans,"  it  was  objected 
in  conversation, "  would  bo  at  leisure  to  manufacture  for  them- 
selves." 

On  the  other  side,  Benjamin  Franklin,  then  in  London  as 
the  agent  of  Pennsylvania,  defended  the  annexation  of  Canada 
as  the  only  mode  of  securing  America.  The  Indians,  from  the 
necessity  of  connnerce,  would  cease  to  massacre  the  planters, 
and  cherish  perpetual  peace.  There  would  be  no  vast  inland 
frontier  to  be  defended  against  France  at  an  incalculable  ex- 
pense. The  number  of  British  subjects  would,  indeed,  increase 
more  rapidly  than  if  the  mountains  were  to  remain  their  bar- 
rier ;  but  they  would  be  more  diffused,  and  their  employment 
in  agriculture  would  free  England  from  the  fear  of  American 
manufactures.  "  With  Canada  in  our  possession,"  he  remarked, 
"  our  people  in  America  will  increase  amazingly.  I  know  that 
their  common  rate  of  increase  is  doubling  their  mnnbers  every 
twenty-iive  years  by  natural  generation  only,  exclusive  of  the 
accession  of  foreigners.  This  increase  continuing  would,  in  a 
century  more,  make  the  British  subjects  on  that  side  the 
water  more  numerous  than  they  now  are  on  this."  Should  the 
ministry  surrender  their  own  judgment  to  the  fears  of  others,  it 
would  "  prevent  the  assuring  to  the  British  name  and  nation  a 
stability  and  permanency  that  no  man  acquainted  with  history 
durst  have  hoped  for  till  our  American  possessions  opened  the 
pleasing  prospect." 

To  the  objection  that  England  could  supply  only  the  sea- 
coast  with  manufactures,  Franklin  evoked  the  splendid  vision 
of  the  future  navigation  on  the  great  rivers  and  inland  seas  of 
America.  The  poor  Indian  on  Lake  Superior  was  already  able 
to  pay  for  French  and  English  wares ;  and  would  not  indus- 
trious settlers  in  those  countries  be  better  able  to  pay  for  what 
should  be  brought  them? 


MMi 


m 


w 


1760.  SHALL  CANADA  BE  RETAINED   AT  THE  PEACE?  527 

"The  trade  to  the  West  India  islands,"  he  continued,  '^is 
valuable ;  hut  it  has  long  been  at  a  stand.  The  trade  to'  our 
northern  colonies  is  not  only  greater,  but  yearly  increasing 
with  the  increase  of  jieople,  and  even  in  a  greater  proportion, 
as  the  people  increase  in  wealth. 

"  That  their  growth  may  render  them  dangerous  I  have 
not  the  least  conception.    We  have  already  fourteen  separate 
governments  on  the  maritime  coast  of  the  continent,  and  shall 
probably  have  a^  many  more  behind  them  on  the  inland  side. 
Their  jealousy  of  each  other  is  so  great  they  have  never  been 
able  to  effect  a  union  among  themselves,  nor  even  to  ao-ree  in 
requesting  the  mother  country  to  establish  it  for  them.     If 
they  could  not  agree  to  unite  for  their  defence  against  the 
French  and  Indians,  who  were  perpetually  harassing  their  set- 
tlements, burning  their  villages,  and  murdering  their  people, 
is  there  any  danger  of  their  uniting  against  their  own  nation,' 
which  they  all  love  much  more  than  they  love  one  another  ? 
"  Such  a  union  is  impossible,  without  the  most  grievous  tyr- 
anny and  oppression.     While  the  government  is  mild  and  just, 
while  important  civil  and  religious  rights  are  secure,  people 
will  be  dutiful  and  obedient.     The  waves  do  not  rise  but 
when  the  winds  blow." 

Appeahng  to  men  of  letters,  Franklin  communed  with 
David  Hume  on  the  jealousy  of  trade,  and  approved  the  sys- 
tem of  pohtical  economy  that  promises  to  the  worid  freedom 
of  commerce  and  mutual  benefits  from  mutual  prosperity.     He 
rejoiced  that  the  great  master  of  English  historic  style  loved 
to  promote  that  common  good  of  mankind,  which  the  Ameri- 
can, inventing  a  new  form  of  expression,  called  "  the  interest 
of  humanity ; "  and  he  summoned  before  the  Scottish  philoso- 
pher that  audience  of  innumerable  millions  which  a  century 
or  two  would  prepare  in  America  for  all  who  should  write 
EngHsh  well.      England  proudly  accepted  the  counsels  of 
magnanimity.     Promising  herself  wealth  from  colonial  trade, 
she  was  occupied  by  the  thought  of  filling  the  wilderness,  in- 
structing it  with  the  products  of  her  intelligence,  and  blessing 
it  with  free  institutions.     Homer  sang  from  isle  to  isle ;  the 
bards  of  England  would  find  "  hearers  in  every  zone,"  and,  in 
the  admiration  of  genius,  continent  would  respond  to  continent. 


f  1''  I  '■ 


li  J 


1  ^ 


528    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  en.  xri. 

Pitt  would  not  weigli  the  "West  India  islands  against  half  a 
hemisphero ;  he  desired  to  retain  them  both,  but,  being  over- 
ruled in  the  cabinet,  he  held  fast  to  Canada.  lie  made  it  his 
glory  to  extend  the  region  throughout  which  English  liberties 
were  to  be  enjoyed  ;  and  yet  at  that  very  time  the  b(,iird  of 
trade  retained  the  patronage  and  internal  administration  of  the 
colonies,  and  were  persuaded  more  than  ever  of  the  necessity 
of  radical  changes  in  the  government  in  favor  of  the  central 
authority.  While  they  waited  for  jjcace  as  the  proper  season 
for  their  interference,  Thomas  Pownidl,  the  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, a  statesman  who  had  generous  feehngs  but  no  logic, 
flashes  of  sagacity  but  no  clear  comprehension,  who  from  in- 
clination associated  with  liberal  men  even  while  he  framed 
plans  for  strengthening  the  pi-orogative,  affirmed,  and  many 
times  reiterated,  that  the  independence  of  America  \\'i\s  cer- 
tain, and  near  at  hand.  "  Not  for  centuries,"  replied  Hutchin- 
son, who  knew  the  strong  affection  of  New  England  for  the 
home  of  its  fathers. 

In  the  winter  after  the  taking  of  Quebec,  the  rumor  went 
abroad  of  the  fixed  design  in  England  to  remodel  the  provinces. 
Many  oflicers  of  the  British  anny  expressed  the  opinion  open- 
ly that  America  should  be  compelled  to  yield  a  revenue  at  the 
disposition  of  the  crown.  Some  of  them,  at  New  York,  sug- 
gested such  a  requisition  of  quit-rents  as  would  be  virtually  a 
general  land-tax,  by  act  of  parliament.  "  "Wliile  I  can  ^vdeld 
this  weapon,"  cried  Livingston,  the  large  landliolder,  touching 
his  sword,  "  England  shall  never  get  it  but  with  niy  heart's 
blood."  In  the  assembly  at  New  York,  which  had  been  chosen 
in  the  pre  \' ions  year,  the  popular  party  was  strengthened  by 
those  who  battled  against  Episcopacy ;  and  the  family  of  the 
Livingstons,  descendants  of  Scottish  Presbyterians,  took  a  lead- 
ing part.  Of  these  were  Philip,  the  popular  alderman,  a  mer- 
chant of  New  York ;  "William,  who  represented  his  brother's 
manor,  a  scholar,  and  an  able  lawyer,  the  incorraptible  advo- 
cate of  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  and  Robei-t  II.  Livingston, 
of  Duchess  county,  an  only  son,  heir  to  very  large  estates,  a 
man  of  spirit  and  hon3r,  of  gentleness  and  candor. 

On  the  other  side,  Cadwallader  Colden,  the  president  of  the 
council,  proposed  to  secure  the  dependence  of  the  plantations 


Tfl 


1700.         PLANS  TO  ABRIDGE  COLONIAL  LIIJERTY. 


529 


on  tlio  cro^vTl  of  Groat  Britain  "  by  "  a  perpetual  revenue,"  fixed 
salaries,  and  "an  hereditary  council  of  privileged  landholder 
in  inntat.oa  of  the  lords  of  parliament."  Influenced  l.y  a  most 
favorable  opinion"  of  Colden's  "zeal  for  the  rights  of  the 
crown,  Lord  Halifax  conferred  on  him  the  vacant  post  of  lieu- 
tenant-governor of  ISTew  1'  ork. 

In  New  Jersey,  Francis  Bernard,  its  govenior,  a  royalist, 
selected  lor  office  by  Halifax,  had,  from  1758,  the  time  of  his 
arrival  in  America,  courted  favor  by  plans  for  enlarging  royal 
power,  winch  he  afterward  reduced  to  form.     Peimsylvania, 
of  all  the  CO  onies,  led  the  van  of  what  the  royalists  called 
Democracy."     Its  assembly  supceeded  in  obtaining  its  gover- 
nor s  assent  to  their  favorite  assessment  bill,  by  which  the 
estates  of  the  j)roprietaries  were  subjected  to  taxation.     They 
revived  and  continued  for  sixteen  years  their  excise,  which  was 
collected  by  officers  of  their  own  appointment ;  and  they  ].  >pt 
Its     very  considerable"  proceeds  solely  and  entirely  at  thdr 
own  disposal.      They  sought  to  take  from  the  governor  in- 
fluence over  the  judiciary,  by  making  good  behavior  its  tenure 
of  office,     mvyhnd  repeated  the  same  contests,  and  adopted 
tlie  same  po.icy. 

The  proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania,  in  March  1700,  appealed 
o  the  king  against  seventeen  acts  that  had  been  passed  in 
17o8  and  lv50,  "as  equally  affecting  the  royal  prerogative, 
their  chartered  immunities,  and  their  rights  as  men."     When 
111  May  17G0,  Frankhii  appeared  with  able  counsel  to  defend 
the  hberties  of  Iiis  adopted  home  before  the  board  of  trade 
he  was  encomitered  by  Pratt,  the  attorney-general,  and  Charies 
Yorke,  the  son  of  Lord  Ilardwicke,  then  the  solicitor-general 
who  appeared  for  the  prerogative  and  the  proprietaries.    Even 
the  liberal  Pratt,  as  well  as  Yorke,  "  said  much  of  the  inten- 
tion  to  establish  a  democracy  in  place  of  his  majesty's  gov- 
ernment," and  urged  upon  "  the  proprietaries  their' duty  of  re- 
sistance."    The  lords  of  trade  advised  "  to  check  the  growing 
influence  of  assemblies  by  distinguishing  the  executive  from 
the  legislative  power."    When,  in  July,  the  subject  was  dis- 
cussed before  the  privy  council,  Lord  Mansfield  moved,  "  that 
the  attorney-  and  solicitor-general  be  instructed  to  report  their 
opimon  whetb-.  his  majesty  could  not  disapprove  of  parts  of 

VOL.    II.— 31 


I  i'V 


i  I 


530     CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  xvi. 


Wi 


'ii 


an  act  and  confirm  other  parts  of  it ; "  but  so  violent  an  at- 
tempt to  extend  the  king's  prerogative  met  with  no  favor. 
At  ladt,  of  the  seventeen  acts  objected  to  ri.,  si. ..which  en- 
croached most  on  the  executive  power  /ore  ii';3dtivcd  by  the 
king;  but  by  the  influence  of  Lord  Manr'  "]'\  ;  nd  against  the 
advice  of  the  boiird  of  trade,  the  assessniei.^  Si  ,  which  taxed 
the  estates  of  the  proprietaries,  waa  uuule  the  .ntbject  of  an  in- 
formal capitulation  between  them  and  xb^  ~;'eut  of  the  people 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  included  amon^-  those  that  were  con- 
firmed. 

There  were  two  men  in  England  whose  relaticm  to  these 
transactions  is  especially  memorable  :  Pitt,  the  secretary  of 
state  for  the  colonies ;  and  Edmund  Burke,  a  man  of  letters,  at 
that  time  in  the  service  of  William  Gerard  Hamilton,  the  col- 
league of  Lord  Halifax.  Burke  shared  the  opinions  of  the 
board  of  trade,  that  all  the  offensive  acts  of  Pennsylvania 
should  bo  rejected,  and  censured  with  severity  the  temporizing 
facility  of  Lord  Mansfield  as  a  feeble  and  unmanly  surrender 
of  just  authority.  The  time  was  near  at  hand  when  the  young 
Irishman's  opinions  upon  the  extent  of  British  authority  over 
America  would  become  of  moment.  Great  efforts  were  made 
to  win  the  immediate  interposition  of  WilUam  Pitt,  so  that  he 
might  appall  the  colonies  by  his  censure,  or  mould  them  by 
British  legislation.  After  long-continued  inquiry,  I  can  not 
find  that  he  ever  consented  to  menace  any  restriction  on 
the  freedom  of  the  people  in  the  colonies,  or  even  so  much 
as  expressed  an  opinion  that  they  were  more  in  fault  than  the 
champions  of  prerogative.  So  little  did  he  interest  himself  in 
the  strifes  of  Pennsylvania  that,  during  his  ministry,  Frank- 
lin was  never  admitted  to  his  presence.  Every  one  of  his  let- 
ters which  I  have  seen— and  I  think  I  have  read  every  con- 
siderable one  to  every  colony— is  marked  by  hberality  and 
respect  for  American  rights.  The  threat  of  interference,  on 
the  close  of  the  war,  was  incessant  from  Halifax  and  the  board 
of  trade ;  I  can  trace  no  such  purpose  to  Pitt. 

American  merchants  were  incited,  by  French  commercial 
regulations,  to  engage  in  the  carrying-trade  of  the  French 
sugar-islands;  and  they  gained  by  it  immense  profits.  This 
trade  was  protected  by  flags  of  trace,  whicli  were  granted  by 


l!l-.*}li 


K'  i 


1700.         PLANS  TO  ABRIDGE   COLONIAL  LIBERTY.  531 

the  colonial  governors.  »  For  each  flag,"  wrote  Horatio  Sharpo 
who  longed  to  Hhare  in  the  Hpolls,  "for  eacli  flag,  my  neighbor, 
Oovemor  Denny,  receives  a  handfiomo  douceur;  and  I  have 
been  told  that  (Jovernor  Bernard,  in  [)articular,  has  done  busi- 
ness in  the  same  way."  "  I,"  naid  Fauquier,  of  Virginia,  "  have 
never  been  preva:'  '1  on  to  grant  one,  though  I  have  been 
tempted  by  large  otiers,  and  pitiful  stories  of  relations  lying 
in  French  dungeons  for  want  of  such  flags."  In  vehement 
and  imperative  words,  Pitt  rebuked  the  practice,  but  not  with 
the  intention  permanently  to  restrain  the  trade  of  the  continent 
with  the  foreign  islands. 

In  Augtist,  the  same  month  in  wliich  this  interdict  was 
issued,  Francis  Bernard  was  removed  to  the  gov-^niment  of 
Massachusetts.  In  September  of  that  year,  he  manifested  the 
pui7)08e  of  his  appointment  by  infonning  the  legislature  of 
Massachusetts  "  that  they  derived  blessings  from  their  subjec- 
tion to  C4reat  Britain."  Sid)jection  to  Great  Britain  was  a 
new  doctrine  in  New  England,  whose  people  professed  loyalty 
to  the  king,  but  shunned  a  master  in  the  collective  people 
of  England.  The  council,  in  its  reply,  o^vned  only  a  bene- 
ficial "  relation  to  Great  Britain  ; "  the  house  of  representatives 
spoke  vaguely  of  "  the  connection  between  the  mother  coun- 
try and  the  provinces,  on  the  principles  of  filial  obedience, 
protection,  and  justice." 

The  colonists  had  promised  themselves,  after  the  conquest 
of  Canada,  that  they  should  "sit  quietly  under  their  own 
^dnes  and  fig-trees,  with  none  to  make  them  afraid ; "  and  al- 
ready  they  began  to  fear  aggressions  on  their  freedom.  To 
check  illicit  trade,  the  officers  of  the  customs  had  even  de- 
manded of  the  supremo  court  general  writs  of  assistance ;  but 
the  ^mts  had  been  withheld,  because  Stephen  Sewall,  the  up- 
right chief  justice  of  the  province,  doubted  their  legality. 

In  September,  Sewall  died,  to  the  universal  sorrow  of  the 
province.  Had  the  first  surviving  judge  been  promoted  to  the 
vacancy,  a  place  would  have  been  left  open  for  James  Otis,  of 
Barnstable,  at  that  time  speaker  of  the  house  of  representatives, 
a  good  lawyer,  to  whom  a  former  governor  had  promised  a  seat 
on  the  bench ;  but  Bernard  appointed  Thomas  Hutchinson, 
who  was  already  lieutenant-governor,  councillor,  and  judge  of 


ti'^ 


532    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.  ;  en.  xvi. 


176( 


I 


probate.  A  burst  of  indignation  broke  from  tlie  colony  at 
tliis  union  of  sucli  high  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial 
functions  in  one  person,  who  was  not  bred  to  the  law,  and  was 
expected  to  intf>'pret  it  for  the  beiiofit  of  the  prerogative. 
Oxenbridge  Thacher,  a  lawyer  of  great  ability,  a  man  of 
sagacity  and  patriotism,  respected  for  learning  and  mod- 
eration, discerned  the  dangerous  character  of  Hutchinson's 
aml)ition,  and  from  this  time  denounced  him  openly  and 
always ;  while  James  Otis,  the  younger,  offended  as  a  son  and 
a  patriot,  resigned  the  office  of  advocate-general,  and,  by  his 
eloquence  in  opposition  to  the  royalists,  set  the  province  in  a 
flame.  But  the  new  chief  justice  received  the  renewed  ai> 
plication  for  writs  of  assistance,  and  delayed  the  decision  of 
fhe  court  till  he  could  write  to  England. 

The  lords  of  trade  had  matured  their  system.  They  agreed 
with  what  Dobbs  had  written  from  Nortl .  Carolina,  that  "  it 
was  not  prudent,  when  unusual  supplies  were  asked,  to  litigate 
any  pomt  with  the  factious  assemblies ;  but,  upon  an  approach- 
ing peace,  it  would  be  proper  to  insist  on  the  king's  preroga- 
tive." "  Lord  IlaUfax  was  earnest  for  bishops  in  America  ; " 
and  he  hoped  for  success  in  tha  "  great  point,  when  it  should 
please  God  to  bless  them  with  a  peace."  Ellis,  the  governor 
of  Georgia,  had  represented  the  want  of  "a  small  militaiy 
force  "  to  keep  the  assembly  from  encroachments  ;  Lyttelton, 
from  South  Carolina,  and  so  many  more,  had  sent  word  that 
the  root  of  all  tbe  difficulties  of  the  king's  soi-vants  lay  '•  in 
having  no  standing  revenue."  "  It  ha>  been  hinted  to  me," 
said  Calvert,  the  sec.  tary  of  Maryland,  "that,  at  the  peace, 
acts  of  parliament  will  be  moved  for  amendment  of  govern- 
ment and  a  standing  force  in  America,  and  that  tlie  colonics, 
for  whose  protection  the  force  Avill  be  established,  must  bear  at 
least  the  greatest  ;ihai-e  ol  charge.  This,"  he  wrote,  in  January 
17G0,  "  will  occasion  a  tax  ;"  and  he  made  preparations  to  give 
the  board  of  trade  his  answer  to  their  projx  isitions  on  the  safest 
modes  of  raising  a  revenue  in  America  l)y  act  of  parliament. 

"  For  all  what  you  Americans  say  of  your  loyalty,"  obsei-ved 
Pratt,  the  attorney-general,  better  known  in  America  as  Lord 
Camden,  to  Franklin,  "  and  notwithstanding  your  boasted  af- 
fection, you  will  one  day  set  up  for  independence."     "  No 


sue 
Anf 

"Y 
wil] 

alte 
ing 
Am 
sett 
fax 
tion 
lenc 
Gee 
on  i 


0 


in 


r 
I 


1760.         PLANS  TO  ABRIDGE   COLONIAL  LIBERTY. 


533 


such  idea,"  repKed  Franklin,  sincerely,  "  is  entertained  by  the 
Americans,  or  ever  will  be,  unless  you  grossly  abuse  tliem." 
"Very  tnie,"  rejoined  Pratt;  "that  I  see  will  happen,  and 
will  produce  the  event." 

Peace  with  foreign  states  was  to  bring  for  America  an 
alteration  of  charters,  a  new  system  of  administration,  a  stand- 
mg  army,  and  for  the  support  of  that  army  a  grant  of  an 
American  revenue  by  a  British  parliament.  The  decision  was 
settled,  after  eleven  years'  reflection  and  experience,  by  Hali- 
fax and  his  associates  at  the  board  of  trade,  and  for  its  execu- 
tion needed  only  a  prime  minister  and  a  resolute  monarch  to 
lend  it  countenance.  In  th  o  midst  of  these  schemes,  the  aged 
George  II.,  surrounded  by  victory,  died  suddenly  of  apoplexy 
on  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  October  1760. 


534  CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANtiDA.    kp.  i. 


en.  XVII. 


CHAPTER   XYII. 


!      •: 


THE  KING   AND   THE   AEISTOCEACY   AGAINST  THE   GREAT  COM- 
MONEK.       GEO    GE    IH.  DRIVES   OUT   PITT. 

1760-1761. 

The  new  king  went  directly  to  Carleton  house,  tlie  resi- 
dence of  Lis  mother.  The  lirst  person  whom  he  sent  for  was 
Newcastle,  whom  Jie  chose  to  regard  as  chief  minister.  New- 
castle had  no  sooner  entered  Carleton  house  tlian  Bute  told 
him  that  the  king  would  see  him  before  holding  a  council. 
''  Compliments  from  me,"  he  added,  "  are  now  unnecessary.  I 
have  been  and  shall  be  yom*  friend,  and  you  shall  see  it." 
The  veteran  courtier  caught  at  the  naked  hook  iis  soon  as 
thrown  out,  and  answered  in  the  same  strain.  The  Idng 
praised  his  loyalty,  and  said :  "  My  Lord  Bute  is  your  good 
friend ;  he  will  tell  you  my  thoughts  at  large."  Newcajstle,  in 
return,  was  profuse  of  promises ;  and,  before  the  ashes  of  the 
late  ]-ing  were  cold,  the  faithless  duke  was  conspiring  with  the 
new  influences  on  and  around  the  throne. 

On  meeting  the  council,  the  king  appeared  agitated,  and 
with  good  reason ;  for  the  address  in  which  he  wat.  to  an- 
nounce his  accession  to  the  throne,  havii:,'  been  dra\vn  by 
Bute,  set  up  adhesion  to  his  plan  of  ^T;ovenmient  as  the  test  of 
honesty;  described  the  wai-  as  "bl'H'Jy"  and  expensive;  and 
silently  abandoned  the  king  of  Pruseju.  Newcastle,  who  was 
directed  to  read  it  aloud,  seemed  to  nnu  it  unexceptionable. 
"  Is  there  anything  wrong  in  point  of  form  ? "  was  the  only 
question  asked  hy  the  king,  and  lw  tlionditemissed  his  ministers. 

Tlie  great  connuoii»T  discin-ned  v,  hat  was  plotting;  and, 
after  an  altercation  of  two  or  tliree  hours  vvith  Lord  Bute, 
he  extorted  the  king's  reluctant  consent  to  substitute  words 


#■■ 


m 


1760-1761.     THE  KING  FORCES  PITT  TO  RETIRE. 


535 


marked  by  dignity,  nationality,  and  fidelity  to  his  allies.  The 
wound  to  the  royal  authority  rankled  in  the  breast  of  the 
king ;  he  took  care  to  distinguish  Newcastle  above  all  others ; 
and,  on  the  third  day  after  his  accession,  against  the  declared 
opinion  of  Pitt,  lie  called  Bute,  who  was  but  his  groom  of  the 
stole,  to  the  cabinet. 

A  greater  concourse  of  "  the  beauty  and  gentility  "  of  the 
kingdom  attended  him  at  the  opening  of  parliament  than  had 
ever  graced  that  assembly.  "His  manner,"  said  Inger,ioll, 
of  Connecticut,  who  was  present,  "  has  the  beauty  of  an  ac- 
complished speaker.  He  is  not  on;  /,  as  a  king,  disposed  to  do 
all  in  his  power  to  make  his  subjects  happy,  but  is  undoubt- 
edly of  a  disposition  tndy  religious."  Horace  Walpole  praised 
his  grace,  dignity,  and  good-nature  in  courUy  verses,  and  be- 
gan a  correspondence  with  Bute.  The  poet  Chm-chiU  did 
but  echo  the  voice  of  the  natiou  when  he  drew  a  picture  of 
an  unambitious,  merciful,  anrl  impartial  prince,  and  added: 
"  Pleased  we  behold  such  worth  on  any  throne, 
And  doubly  pleased  we  lind  it  on  our  own." 
"  Our  young  man,"  wrote  Iloldemesse,  one  of  the  secretaries 
of  state,  "  is  patient  and  diligent  in  business,  and  gives  evi- 
dent marks  of  perspicuity  and  good  sense."  "  lie  applies  hun- 
self  thoroughly  to  his  affairs,  and  understands  them  astonish- 
ingly well,"  reported  Barrington,  the  secretary  at  war,  a  few 
weeks  later.  "■  His  faculties  seem  to  me  equal  to  his  good 
intentions.  A  most  ur.conmion  attention  ;  a  quick  and  just 
concepti(^n  ;  great  mildness,  great  civility,  which  takes  noth- 
ing from  his  dig)v'ty ;  caution  and  firmness — are  conspicuous 
in  the  highest  degree."  Charles  Townshend  described  "  the 
young  ma:i  as  ver  .•  obstinate." 

The  riding  passion  of  George  III.,  early  developed  and  in- 
delibly brajuled  ui,  wag  the  restorat  :i  of  the  prerogative, 
wL'.oh  in  A  •.  ;  ica  the  provincial  assemblies  had  resisted  ;md 
deiieU  ;  wtiich  in  England  had  one  obstacle  in  the  rising  im- 
portance of  the  people,  and  another  in  what  his  friends  called 
"  the  invctoicite  usurpation  of  oligarchy."  From  the  day  of 
his  accession  he  displayed  an  innate  love  of  authority,  and, 
vvith  a  reluctant  yielding  to  present  hindrances,  the  reserved 
purpos?^  of  asserting  his  self-will.    To  place  himself  above  die- 


536    CONQUEST  OF  TDE  WEST  AND  CANADA. 


KP.  I. ;  ou.  xvu. 


:  i    > 


tation  of  all  sorts,  he  was  bent  on  securing  "to  tlie  court  the 
unlimited  use  of  its  own  vast  influence  under  the  Gole  direc- 
tion of  its  private  favor." 

In  the  approaching  election  he  nominated  to  the  king's 
boroughs,  and  Avhere  a  pubhc  order  gave  permission  to  the 
voters  in  the  king's  interest  to  vote  as  they  pleased,  a  private 
one  was  annexed,  ''  naming  the  person  for  whom  they  were  a'' 
to  vote."  George  III.  began  his  reign  by  competing  with  the 
aristocracy  at  the  elections  for  the  majority  ;  and,  in  the  choice 
of  the  twelfth  parliament,  he  was  successful. 

On  the  nineteenth  of  March  1761,  the  day  of  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  old  parliament,  a  vacancy  was  made  in  the  ofiice  of 
the  chancellor  of  the  exchecpier.  George  Grenville,  who  piqued 
liimself  on  his  knowledge  of  iinance,  "expressed  to  his  brother- 
in-law  his  desire  of  the  vacant  place ;  but  Pitt  took  no  notice 
of  his  wishes,"  and  the  neglect  increased  the  coolness  of  Gren- 
ville. "  Fortune,"  exclaimed  Barrington,  on  receiving  the  ap- 
pointment, "  may  at  la.«t  make  me  pope.  I  am  equally  lit  to 
be  at  the  lujad  of  the  church  as  of  the  exchequer." 

Two  days  later,  the  resignation  of  Holdernesse  was  pur- 
chased by  a  pension  and  a  reversion,  and  Bute  took  the  seals  for 
the  -  'lern  department,  accepting  as  his  confldential  under- 
sec  >f.:u  Charles  Jenkinson,  who  had  been  put  forward  by 
Gv'  <;/<  irfmville,  and  was  a  friend  of  the  king.  The  appoint- 
ments Drought  the  king  no  strength.  The  earl  of  Bute  was 
inferior  to  George  III.,  even  in  those  qualities  in  which  that 
prince  was  most  deficient ;  greatly  his  inferior  in  courage  and 
energy  of  character.  Timid  by  nature,  he  united  persistence 
with  pusilliinimity,  and,  as  a  consequence,  with  duplicity :  so 
that  it  is  difficult  to  express  adequately  his  unfitness  for  the 
conduct  of  a  party,  or  the  administration  of  public  afiairs. 

At  the  same  time,  an  office  was  given  to  an  open  and  reso- 
lute opponent  of  Pitt's  engagem.ents  with  Gennany;  and 
Charles  Townshend,  who  was,  in  parliament  and  in  life,  "  for- 
ever on  the  rack  of  exertion/'  o*  ilb regulated  ambition,  un- 
steady in  his  political  connections,  inchijiug always  to  the  king, 
yet  so  conscious  of  the  jiower  conferred  on  ^  '-a  in  the  house 
of  commons  by  his  elociuenee  as  never  to  become  the  servant 
of  the  king's  friends,  was  made  secretary  of  war. 


%l*5^&'. 


':'*0'd: 


I; 


irei. 


THE  KING  FORCES  PITT  TO  RETIRE. 


537 


That  tliere  might  be  in  the  cabinet  one  man  who  dared  to 
contradict  Pitt  and  oppose  his  measures,  tlie  duke  of  Bedford, 
thougli  without  emi)l()yment,  was,  by  tlie  king's  command, 
summoned  to  attend  its  meetings. 

These  changes  in  the  cabinet  assured  a  conflict  with  the 
colonies  ;  the  course  of  negotiations  for  peace  between  England 
and  France  was  still  more  momentous  for  America. 

"  Since  we  do  not  know  how  to  make  war,  we  must  make 
peace,"  said  Clioiseul,  who  to  the  ministry  of  foreign  affairs 
had,  in  January  17G1,  become  minister  of  war,  and  was  annex- 
ing to  these  departments  the  care  of  the  marine.  Kannitz, 
of  Austria,  who  might  well  believe  that  Silesia  was  about  to 
be  recovered  for  his  sovereign,  interposed  objections.  "  We 
have  these  three  years,"  answered  Choiseul,  "  been  sacrificing 
our  interests  in  America  to  serve  the  queen  of  Hungary :  we 
can  do  it  no  longer."  Grimaldi,  urging  the  utmost  secrecy, 
"  began  working  to  see  if  he  could  make  some  protective  al- 
liance with  France."  "  Yon  have  waited,"  he  was  answered, 
"  till  we  are  destroyed,  and  you  are  consequently  of  nu  use." 
And,  on  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  March,  witliin  five  days  of 
Bute's  accession  to  the  cabinet,  Choiseul  offered  to  negotiate 
separately  with  England.     Pitt  assented. 

Choiseul  was,  like  Pitt,  a  statesman  of  consummate  ability; 
but,  while  Pitt  overawed  by  the  authoritative  grandeur  of  his 
designs,  Choiseul  had  the  genius  of  intrigue.  He  carried  into 
the  cabinet  restless  activity  and  tlie  arts  of  cabal.  Pitt  treated 
all  sul)ject8  with  stateliness;  Choiseul  discussed  the  most 
weighty  in  jest.  Of  high  rank  and  great  wealth,  he  was  the 
first  person  at  court,  and  virtually  the  sole  minister.  Did  the 
king's  niistress,  wlio  had  niled  his  predecessor,  interfere  with 
affairs,  he  would  reply  that  she  was  handsome  as  an  angel,  but 
throw  her  memorial  into  the  fire  ;  and,  with  railleries  and  sar- 
casms, he  maintained  his  exclusive  power  by  a  clear  superiority 
of  spirit  and  resolution.  For  personal  intrepidity,  he  was  dis- 
tinguished even  among  the  French  gentry  ;  and  as  he  ruled  the 
cabinet  by  his  decided  character,  so  he  brought  into  the  foreign 
politics  of  his  country  as  daring  a  mind  as  animated  any  man 
in  France,  or  EnHand.  It  was  tho  judgment  oi  l*itt  that  he 
was  the  greatest    minister  Franc  j  had  seen  since  the  days  of 


538  CONliUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ; 


;  cir.  XVII. 


■gf^ 

"f 

r/' 

'h 

i* 

J 

'/  s 


Iftl 


Riclielion.  Tm  deptli,  refinement,  and  quick  perceptions,  he 
had  no  superior.  To  tlio  daupliin,  who  cherished  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  past,  lie  said:  "I  may  one  day  l)e  your  subject, 
your  servant  never."  A  free-thinker,  an  enemy  to  tlie  clergy, 
and  above  all  to  the  Jesuits,  he  united  himself  closely  wi^h  the 
parliaments,  and  knew  that  public  opinion  was  beginning  to 
outweigh  that  of  the  monarch.  Perceiving  that  America  was 
lost  to  France,  he  proposed,  as  the  basis  of  the  treaty,  that 
"  the  two  crowns  should  remain  each  in  the  ])ossession  of  what 
it  had  conquered  from  the  other;"  and,  while  he  named  epochs 
from  which  possession  was  to  date  in  every  continent,  he  was 
willing  that  England  itself  should  suggest  other  periods.  On 
this  footing,  which  left  (Canada,  Senegal,  perhai)s  Goree  also, 
and  the  ascenilency  in  the  East  Indies  to  England,  and  to 
France  nothing  but  ]\Iinorca  to  exchange  for  her  losses  in  the 
West  Indies,  all  Paris  beheved  peace  to  be  certain,  (leorge 
III.  wished  it  from  his  heart;  and,  though  the  king  of  Spain 
proposed  to  France  an  alliance  olfensive  and  defensive,  Choi- 
seul  sincerely  desired  re[)Ose. 

To  further  the  negotiations,  Bussy,  in  May,  repaired  to  Lon- 
don ;  and  Ilans  Stanley  to  Paris. 

With  regard  to  the  German  war,  France  proposed  that 
England,  on  recovering  Hanover,  should  refrain  from  interfer- 
ence ;  and  this  policy  was  supported  in  England  by  the  king 
and  the  duke  of  I'edford.  The  king  of  Prussia  knew  that 
Bute  and  George  III.  would  advise  hiin  to  make  peace  by 
the  sacrifice  of  territory.  "How  is  it  possible,"  such  were 
the  words  addressed  by  Frederic  to  Pitt,  "  how  can  the  Eng- 
lish nation  pro])ose  to  me  to  make  cessions  to  my  enemies — 
that  nation  which  has  guaranteed  my  possessions  by  authentic 
acts  known  to  the  whole  worlds  I  have  not  always  been 
successful ;  and  what  man  in  the  univei'se  can  dispose  of  for- 
tune ?  Yet,  in  spite  of  the  number  of  my  enemies,  I  am  still 
in  possession  of  a  part  of  Saxony,  and  I  am  firmly  resolved 
never  to  yield  it  but  on  condition  that  the  Austrians,  the  Rus- 
sians, and  the  French  shall  restore  to  me  eveiy thing  that  they 
have  taken  from  me. 

"  I  govern  myself  by  two  principles :  the  one  is  honor,  and 
the  other  the  interest  of  the  state  which  Heaven  has  given  me 


1761. 


THE  KING  FORCES  PITT  TO  RETIRE, 


539 


to  nile.  The  laws  wliieh  these  principles  prescrilje  to  me  are  • 
first,  never  to  do  an  act  for  which  I  should  have  cause  to  blush," 
if  I  were  to  render  an  account  of  it  to  my  people ;  and  the  sec- 
ond, to  sacrifice  for  the  welfare  and  glorv  of  my  country  the 
last  drop  of  my  blood.  With  these  maxims  I  ca'n  never  yield 
to  my  enemies.  Rome,  after  the  battle  of  Canna) ;  your  great 
Queen  Elizabeth,  against  Philip  11.  and  the  Invincible  Arma- 
da ;  Gustavus  Vasa,  who  restored  Sweden ;  the  i)rince  of  Or- 
ange, whoso  magnanimity,  valor,  and  perseverance  founded  the 
republic  of  the  [Jnited  Provinces— these  are  the  models  I  fol- 
low. You,  who  have  grandeur  and  elevation  of  soul,  disap- 
prove my  choice,  if  you  can. 

"  All  Europe  funis  its  eye  on  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
kings,  and  by  the  first  fruits  infers  the  future.  The  king  of 
England  has  but  to  elect  whether,  in  negotiating  peace,  he^Avill 
think  only  of  his  own  kingdom,  or,  preserving  his  word  and 
his  glory,  he  will  have  care  for  his  allies.  If  he  chooses  the 
latter  course,  I  shall  owe  him  a  lively  gratitude;  and  poster- 
ity, which  judges  kings,  will  crown  him  with  benedictions." 

Pitt  replied  :  "  Would  to  TJod  that  the  moments  of  anxiety 
for  the  states  and  the  safety  of  the  most  invincible  of  raon- 
archs  were  entirely  passed  away ; »  and  Stanley,  in  his  first 
interview  with  Choiseid,  was  iastmcted  to  avow  the  purpose 
of  England  to  support  its  great  ally  "with  efficacy  and  good 
faith." 

When  Franco  expressed  a  hope  of  recovering  Canada,  as  a 
compensation  for  her  German  coiKpiests,  "  They  must  not  be 
put  in  the  scale,"  said  Pitt  to  Bussy.  "  The  members  of  the 
empire  and  your  own  allies  will  never  allow  you  to  hold  one 
inch  of  ground  in  Germany.  The  whole  fmit  of  your  expedi- 
tions, after  the  immense  waste  of  treasure  and  men,  will  be  to 
make  the  house  of  Austria  more  powerful."  "  I  wonder,"  said 
Choiseul  to  Stanley,  "that  your  great  Pitt  should  be 'so  at- 
tached to  the  acquisition  of  Canada.  In  the  hands  of  France, 
it  will  always  be  of  service  to  you  to  keep  your  colonies  in 
that  dependence  which  they  will  iiot  fail  to  shake  off  the 
moment  Canada  shall  be  ceded."  He  readily  consented  to 
abandon  that  province  to  England. 

The  restitution  of  the  merchant  ships,  which  the  English 


II 


540    COXQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA. 


EP.  I, ;   cu.  XVII. 


cniisers 
"  The 


liiul  seized  before  the  war,  was  jnstly  demanded, 
cannon,"  said  Pitt,  "has  settled  the  question  in  our 
favor;  and,  in  the  ahsence  of  a  tribunal,  this  decision  is  a 
sentence."  "  The  last  cannon  has  not  yet  been  tired,"  retorted 
Bussy ;  and  other  desperate  wars  were  to  come  for  dominion 
and  for  equality  on  the  seas.  J5ut  the  demand  for  indenniity 
would  not  have  been  persisted  in. 

Choiseul  was  ready  to  admit  concessions  Avith  regard  to 
demolishing  the  harbor  of  Dunkirk,  if  France  could  retain  a 
harbor  in  the  (lulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  with  the  freedom  of  the 
fisheries ;  without  these,  he  would  decline  further  negotiation. 
Pitt  refused  the  fisheries  altogether.  The  union  of  France 
with  Spain  was  the  consequence.  Toward  his  foreign  ene- 
mies, Pitt  looked  in  proud  serenity;  and  yet  he  was  becoming 
sombre  and  anxious,  for  he  knew  that  his  own  king  had  pre- 
pared for  him  resistance  in  the  cabinet. 

''The  peace  which  is  offered,"  said  Granville,  the  lord 
president,  "  is  more  advantageous  to  England  than  any  ever 
concluded  with  France,  since  King  Henry  V.'s  time."  "I 
l)ray  to  God,"  said  Bedford  to  Bute,  in  July,  "  his  majesty 
may  avail  himself  of  this  opportunity  of  excelling  in  glory  and 
magnanimity  the  most  famous  of  his  predecessors  by  giving 
his  people  a  reasonable  and  lasting  peace.  Will  taking  Mar- 
tinique, or  burning  a  few  more  miserable  villages  on  the  conti- 
nent, be  the  means  of  obtaining  a  better  peace  than  we  can 
command  at  present,  or  induce  the  French  to  relinquish  n,  right 
of  fishery  ?  Indeed,"  he  pursued,  with  good  judgment  and 
good  feeling,  <'  the  endeavoring  to  drive  France  entirely  out  of 
any  naval  power  is  fighting  against  nature,  and  can  tend  to  no 
one  good  to  this  country ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  must  excite  all 
the  naval  powers  in  Europe  to  enter  into  a  confederacy  against 
us,  as  adopting  a  system  of  a  monopoly  of  all  naval  power,  dan- 
gerous to  the  Kberties  of  Europe." 

At  the  king's  special  request,  Bedford  attended  the  cabinet 
council  of  the  twentieth  of  July,  to  discuss  the  conditions  of 
peace.  All  the  resi  who  were  present  cowered  before  Pitt. 
Bedford  "  was  the  single  man  who  dared  to  deliver  an  opinion 
contrary  to  his  sentiment ^."  "I,"  said  Newcastle,  '"envy  him 
that  spirit  more  than  Itis  great  fortune  and  abihties."     But  the 


1761. 


THE  KING  FORCES  PITT  TO  RETIRE. 


541 


union  between  France  and  Spain  was  already  so  far  consum- 
mated that,  in  connection  witli  the  Frencli  memorial,  Bussy 
had,  on  tlie  fifteenth  of  July,  presented  a  note,  requiring',  wliat 
it  was  known  that  Pitt  could  never  concede,  that  England 
should  afford  no  succor  to  the  king  of  Pnissia. 

This  note  and  this  memorial,  demanding  various  advan- 
tages for  Spain,  gave  Pitt  the  advantage.  To  the  private  inter- 
cession of  the  king,  he  yielded  a  little,  but  in  ai)pearanco  only, 
on  the  subject  of  the  fishery,  and  at  the  next  council  he  pre- 
sented his  reply  to  France,  not  for  deliberation,  but  acceptance. 
Bute  dared  not  express  dissent;  and,  as  Bedford  disavowed  all 
responsibility  and  retired,  I'itt,  with  the  unanimous  consent  of 
the  caliinet,  returned  the  memorials  relative  to  Prussia  and  to 
Spanish  affairs  as  inadmissible,  declaring  that  the  king  "  would 
not^  suffer  the  disputes  witli  Spain  to  be  blended  in'tlie  nego- 
tiations of  peace  between  tlic  two  nations." 

On  the  twenty-ninth  of  July,  Stanley,  bearing  the  ultima- 
tum of  England,  demanded  Canada ;  the  fisheries,  with  a  limit- 
ed and  valueless  concession  to  the  French,  and  that  oidy  on  the 
humiliating  condition  of  reducing  Dunkirk ;  half  the  neutral 
islands,  especially  St.  Lucia  and  Tobago ;  Senegal  and  Goree, 
that  is,  a  monopoly  of  the  slave-trade ;  Minorca ;  freedom  to 
assist  the  king  of  Prussia ;  and  British  ascendency  in  the  East 
Indies.  The  ministers  of  Spain  and  Austria  could  not  conceal 
their  exultation.  "  My  honor,"  replied  Choiseul  to  tlic  Eng- 
lish envoy,  "will  be  the  same  fifty  years  hence  as  now;  I  ad- 
niit  without  the  least  reserve  the  king's  propensity  to  peace ; 
his  majesty  may  sign  such  a  treaty  as  England  demands,  Ijut 
my  hand  shall  never  be  to  that  deed;"  and,  claiming  the  right 
to  interfere  in  Spanish  affairs,  with  the  approbation  of  Spain 
he  submitted  modifications  of  the  British  offer. 

On  this  point  the  king  and  his  friends  made  a  rally ;  and 
the  answer  to  the  French  ultimatum,  peremptorily  rejecting 
it  and  making  the  apjwal  to  "  arms,"  was  adopted  in  the  cabi- 
net by  a  majority  of  but  one  voice.  "  Why,"  asked  George, 
as  he  read  it,  "  were  not  words  chosen  '"  which  all  might  have 
concurred « "  and  his  agitation  was  su.  ii  m  lie  had  never  before 
shown.  The  friends  of  Bedford  mour.ied  over  tlic  continu- 
ance of  the  war,  and  the  danger  of  its  involving  Spain. 


HI 


542   CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    bp.  i.;  cii.  xvn. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  Angnst,  the  day  on  which  Pitt  des- 
patclicd  his  al)rupt  deelamtion,  Choisenl  condndcd  that  family 
compact  wliich  was  designed  to  unite  all  the  branches  of  the 
house  of  Bourbon  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  maritime  ascendency 
of  England.  From  the  period  of  the  termination  of  existing 
hostilities,  France  and  Spain,  in  the  whole  extent  of  their  do- 
minions, were  to  stand  toward  foreign  powers  as  one  state.  A 
war  begun  against  one  of  the  two  crowns  was  to  beciiie  the 
personal  and  proper  war  of  thn  other.  Ts'o  i)eace  sliould  be 
made  but  in  common.  In  war  and  In  peace,  each  should  re- 
gard the  interests  of  his  ally  as  his  own ;  should  reciprocally 
share  benefits  and  losses,  and  make  each  other  corresponding 
compensations. 

On  the  same  fifteenth  of  August,  and  not  without  the 
knowledge  of  Pitt,  France  and  Spain  conchu  d  a  special  con- 
vention, by  which  Spain  engaged  to  declare  var  against  Eng- 
land, unless  peace  should  be  concluded  between  France  and 
England  before  the  first  day  of  May  1702.  Extending  his  eye 
to  all  the  states  interested  in  the  rights  of  neutral  tlags — to 
Portugal,  Savoy,  Holland,  and  Denmark — Choisenl  covenanted 
with  Spain  tliat  Portugal  should  be  compelled,  and  the  others 
invited,  to  join  a  federative  union  "  for  the  common  advan- 
tage of  all  maritime  powers." 

Yet,  still  anxious  for  peace,  and  certain  either  to  secure  it 
or  to  place  the  s}^^pathy  of  all  Europe  on  the  side  of  France, 
Choiseul  resolved  on  a  "  most  ultimate  "  attempt  at  reconcilia- 
tion by  abimdant  concessions ;  and,  on  the  thirteenth  day  of 
September,  just  five  days  after  the  marriage  of  the  youtliful 
sovereign  of  England  to  a  princess  of  Mecklenburg-Strelltz, 
Bussy  presented  the  final  propositions  of  France.  By  Pitt, 
who  was  accurately  informed  of  the  special  convention  between 
France  and  Spain,  they  were  received  with  disdainful  indiffer- 
ence. A  smile  of  irony  and  a  few  broken  words  were  his  only 
answer,  and  he  became  "  more  overbearing  and  impracticable  " 
than  ever.  With  one  hand  he  prepared  to  "  smite  the  whole 
family  of  Bourbons,  and  wield  in  the  other  the  democracy  of 
England."  The  vastest  schemes  fiashed  before  his  mind,  to 
change  the  destinies  of  continents  and  mould  the  fortunes  of 
the  world.    He  resolved  to  seize  the  remaining  French  islands, 


1761. 


THE  KING  FORCES  PITT  TO   HKTIRE. 


648 


fspeciiilly  Martniiquo;  to  conquer  Havana,  to  take  Panama. 
The  Pliilii)|)inc  i-laiids  were  to  fall,  and  tlic  Spanish  monopoly 
in  the  New  Woi-ld  was  to  be  broken  at  otu>  Mow  and  foiwer, 
by  11  "general  resignation  of  all  Spanisli  America,  in  all  mat- 
ters which  might  bo  deemed  beneficial  to  Great  Britain." 

On  the  eighteenth  of  September,  Pitt,  joined  only  by  his 
brother-in-law,  the  earl  of  Temple,  submitted  to  the  cabinet 
his  written  advice  to  recall  Lord  Bristol,  tlie  British  ambassa- 
dor, fnuu  Madrid.    "  From  prudence  as  well  as  ^pirit,"  affirmed 
the  secretary,  "  we  ought  to  secure  to  ourselves  the  first  blow. 
If  any  war  can  provide  its  own  resources,  it  must  be  a  war 
with  Spain.    Their  flota  has  not  arrived ;  the  taking  it  disables 
their  hands  and  strengthens  ours."    Bute,  speaking  the  opinion 
of  the  king,  was  the  first  to  oppose  the  project  as  rash  and  ill- 
advised  ;  Granville  wished  not  to  be  ])recipitate ;  Temple  sup- 
ported Pitt ;  Newcastle  was  neuter.     During  these  discussions, 
all  classes  of  the  people  of  England  wore  gazing  at  the  pageant 
of  the  coronation,  or  relating  to  each  other  how  the  king,  kneel- 
ing before  the  altar  in  Westminster  Abbr. ^ ,  reverently  put  off 
his  crown  as  he  received  the  sacrament  from  the  archbishop. 
A  second  meeting  of  the  cabinet  was  attended  by  all  the  minis- 
ters ;  they  heard  Pitt  explain  correctly  the  j^rivate  convention 
by  which  Spain  had  bound  itself  to  declare  war  against  Great 
Britain  in  the  following  May,  Init  they  came  to  no  decision. 
At  a  third  meeting,  all  tlio  great  whig  loids  objected,  having 
combined  with  the  favorite  to  drive  the  great  representative  of 
the  people  from  power.     Newcastle  and  Ilardwicke,  Devon- 
shire and  Bedford,  even  Ligonier  and  Anson,  as  well  as  Bute 
and  Mansfield,  assisted  in  his  defeat.    Pitt,  with  his  brother-in- 
law.  Temple,  stood  alone.     Stung  by  the  opposition  of  the 
united  oligarchy,  Pitt  remembeiv  ■  how  he  made  his  way  into 
the  cabinet.     "This,"  he  excla  mod  to  his  colleagues,  as  he 
bade  defiance  to  the  aristocracy,  and  appealed  from  them  to 
the  country  which  his  inspiring  influence  had  rescued  from 
disgrace,  "this  is  the  moment  for  huml)ling  the  whole  house 
of  Bourbon ;  if  I  cannot  in  this  instance  prevail,  this  shall  be 
the  last  tinie  I  will  sit  in  this  council.     Called  to  the  ministry 
by  the  voice  of  the  people,  to  whom  I  conceive  myself  ac- 
countable for  my  conduct,  I  will  not  remain  in  a  "situation 


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544    CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    kp.  i.  ;  on.  xvii. 

wliicli  makes  mc  responsible  for  measures  I  am  no  longer  al- 
lowed to  ^lide."  "  If  the  right  honorable  gentleman,"  replied 
Granville,  "be  resolved  to  assume  the  right  of  directing  the 
operations  of  the  war,  to  what  purpose  are  we  called  to  this 
council?  When  he  talks  of  being  responsible  to  the  people,  he 
tallcs  the  language  of  the  house  of  commons,  and  forgets  that 
ai  tliis  board  he  is  responsible  only  to  the  king." 

The  minister  attributed  his  defeat  not  so  much  to  the  Idng 
and  Bute  as  to  JSTewcastle  and  Bedford ;  yet  the  king  was  him- 
self a  partner  in  the  conspiracy;  and,  as  he  rejected  the  written 
advice  that  Pitt  and  Temple  had  given  him,  they  resolved  to 
retire.  Grenville  should  have  retired  with  his  brother-in-law 
and  brother ;  but,  though  he  feared  to  offend  his  family,  he 
loved  his  lucrative  posts,  and  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of 
Bute,  who  assured  him  from  the  king  that,  if  he  would  remain 
in  the  cabinet,  "  his  honor  should  be  the  Idng's  honor,  his  dis- 
grace the  king's  disgrace." 

On  Monday,  the  lif  th  day  of  October,  WiUiam  Pitt— now 
venerable  from  years  and  glory,  the  greatest  minister  of  his 
century,  one  of  the  few  very  great  men  of  his  age,  among  ora- 
tors the  only  peer  of  Demosthenes,  the  man  witliout  title  or 
fortune,  who,  linding  England  in  an  abyss  of  weakness  and 
disgrace,  conquered  Canada  and  the  Ohio  valley  and  Guada- 
loupe,  sustained  Prussia  from  annihilation,  humbled  France, 
gained  the  dominion  of  the  seas,  won  supremacy  in  Hindostan, 
and  at  home  vanquished  faction — stood  in  the  presence  of 
George  to  resign  his  power.  The  young  and  inexperienced 
king  received  the  seals  with  ease  and  firmness,  without  re- 
questing him  to  resume  his  office ;  yet  he  approved  his  past 
services,  and  made  him  an  unlimited  offer  of  rewards.  At 
the  same  time,  he  expressed  himself  satisfied  with  tlie  opin- 
ion of  the  majority  of  his  council,  and  declared  he  should 
have  found  himself  under  the  greatest  difficulty  how  to  have 
acted,  had  that  council  concurred  as  fully  in  supporting  the 
measure  proposed  as  they  had  done  in  rejecting  it.  The  great 
connnoner  began  to  reply ;  but  the  anxious  and  never-ceasing 
application,  which  his  post  had  retpxired,  combined  with  repeat- 
ed attacks  of  hereditary  disease,  had  shattered  his  nervous  sys- 
tom.     "  I  confess,  sir,"  said  he,  "  I  had  but  too  much  reason  to 


U 


ilti.'iii 


•^« 


1761. 


he 


THE  KING  FORCES  PITT  TO  RETIRE. 


545 


expect  your  majesty's  displeasure.     I  did  not  come  prepared 
for  this  exceeding  goodness ;  pardon  me,  sir,  it  overpowers  me, 
it  oppresses  me ; "  and  the  man  who  by  his  words  and  his  spirit 
had  restored  his  country's  affairs,  and  lifted  it  to  unprecedented 
power  and  honor  and  self-reliance,  burst  into  tears.     On  the 
next  day;  the  king  seemed  impatient  to  bestow  some  mark  of 
favor ;  and,  as  Canada  had  been  acquired  by  the  ability  and 
firmness  of  his  minister,  he  offered  him  that  government,  with 
a  salary  of  live  thousand  pounds.     But  Pitt  overflowed  with 
affection  for  his  wife  and  children.     The  state  of  his  private 
affairs  was  distressed  in  consequence  of  the  disinterestedness 
of  his  public  conduct.   •'  I  should  be  doubly  happy,"  he  avowed, 
"  could  I  see  those  dearer  to  me  than  myself  comprehended  in 
that  monument  of  royal  approbation  and  goodness."     A  peer- 
age, therefore,  was  conferred  on  Lady  Hester,  hir  wife,  with  a 
grant  of  three  thousand  pounds  on  the  plantation  duties,  to  be 
paid  annually  during  the  lives  of  herself,  her  husband,  and  her 
eldest  son;   and  these  marks  of  the  royal  approbation,  very 
moderate  in  comparison  with  his  merits,  if  indeed  those  merits 
had  not  placed  him  above  all  rewards,  were  accepted  "  with 
veneration  and  gratitude."     Thus  he  retired,  having  destroyed 
the  balance  of  the  European  colonial  system  by  the  ascendency 
of  England,  confirmed  the  hostihty  of  France  and  Spain  to  his 
country,  and  impaired  his  own  popularity  by  surrendering  his 
family  as  hostages  to  the  aristocracy  for  a  peerage  and  a  pen- 


sion. 


H 


i'i    'l' 


VOL.  u. — 35 


546  CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep. 


on.  XVIII, 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 


THE   ACT8    OF   TRADE    PROVOKE   REVOLUTION.      THE  REMODELLING 
OF   THE   COLONIAL   GOVERNMENTS. 


1761-1762. 

The  legislature  of  Massachusetts  still  acknowledged  that 
"  their  own  resolve  could  not  alter  an  act  of  parliament,"  and 
that  every  proceeding  of  theirs  which  was  in  conflict  with  a 
British  statute  was  for  that  reason  void.  And  yet  the  justice 
and  the  authority  of  the  restrictions  on  trade  was  denied ;  and, 
when  the  oncers  of  the  customs  made  a  petition  for  "  writs  of 
assistance  "  to  enforce  them,  the  colony  regarded  its  liberties  in 
peril.  This  is  the  opening  scene  of  American  resistance.  It 
began  in  New  England,  and  made  its  first  battle-ground  in  a 
court-room.  A  lawyer  of  Boston,  with  a  tongue  of  flame  and 
the  inspiration  of  a  seer,  stepped  forward  to  demonstrate  that 
all  arbitrary  authority  was  unconstitutional  and  against  the  law. 

In  Febniary  1761,  Hutchinson,  the  new  chief  justice,  and 
his  four  associates,  sat  in  the  crowded  council-chamber  of  the 
old  town-house  in  Boston  to  hear  argmnents  on  the  question 
whether  the  persons  employed  in  enforcing  the  acts  of  trade 
should  have  power  to  demand  generally  the  assistance  of  all 
the  executive  officei's  of  the  colony. 

A  statute  of  Charles  II.,  argued  Jeremiah  Gridley  for  the 
crown,  allows  writs  of  assistance  to  be  issued  by  the  Enghsh 
court  of  exchequer ;  a  colonial  law  devolves  the  power  of  that 
couii;  on  the  colonial  superior  court ;  and  a  statute  of  William 
III.  extends  to  the  revenue  officers  in  America  like  powers, 
and  a  right  to  "  like  assistance,"  as  in  England.  To  refuse  the 
writ  is,  then,  to  deny  that  "  the  parliament  of  Great  Britain  is 
the  sovereign  legislator  of  the  British  empire." 


1761.    THE  ACTS  OF  TRADE  PROVOKE  REVOLUTION.      547 

Oxenbridge  Thacher,  who  first  rose  in  reply,  sliowed,  mild- 
ly and  witli  learning,  that  the  rule  of  the  English  courts  was  in 
this  case  not  applicable  to  America. 

But  James  Otis,  a  native  of  Barnstable,  whose  irritable  na- 
ture was  rocked  by  the  impulses  of  fitful  passions,  disdaining 
fees  or  rewards,  stood  up  amid  the  crowd  as  the  champion 
of  the  colonies.     "I  am  determined,"  such  were  his  words, 
"  to  sacrifice  estate,  ease,  health,  applause,  and  even  life,  to  the 
sacred  calls  of  my  country,"  "in  opposition  to  a  kind  of  power 
of  which  the  exercise  cost  one  king  of  England  his  head  and 
another  his  throne."     He  pointed  out  that  writs  of  aA.sistance 
were  "universal,  being  directed  to  all  officers  and  subjects" 
throughout  the  colony,  and  compelling  the  whole  government 
and  people  to  render  aid  in  enforcing  the  revenue  laws  for  the 
plantations ;  that  they  were  perpetual,  no  method  existing  by 
which  they  could  be  returned  or  accounted  for;  that  they  gave 
even  to  the  menial  servants  employed  in  the  customs,  on  bare 
suspicion,  without  oath,  wirnout  inquiry,  perhaps  from  malice 
or  revenge,  authority  to  violate  the  sanctity  of  a  man's  o^vn 
house,  of  which  the  laws  should  be  the  battlements.     "  These 
writs"  he  described  "as  the  worst  instrument  of  arbitrary 
power,  the  most  destnietive  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
law."     And  he  entreated  attention  to  an  argument  which  rest- 
ed on  universal  "  principles  founded  in  truth."    Tracing  the 
lineage  of  freedom  to  its  origin,  he  opposed  the  claims  of  the 
British  officers  by  the  authority  of  "  reason ; "  that  they  were 
at  war  with  "  the  constitution,"  he  proved  by  appeals  to  the 
charter  of  Massachusetts  and  its  English  liberties.     The  prece- 
dent cited  against  him  belonged  to  the  reign  of  Charles  IL, 
and  was  but  evidence  of  the  subserviency  of  some  "  ignorant 
clerk  of  the  exchequer ; "  but,  even  if  there  were  precedents, 
"all  precedents,"  he  ineisted,  "are  under  control  of  the  princi- 
ples of  law."     Xor  could  an  express  statu 'e  sanction  the  en- 
forcement of  acts  of  trade  by  general  writs  of  assistance.    "  JSTo 
act  of  parliament,"  such  were  his  words,  which  initiated  a  revo- 
lution, "  can  establish  such  a  Avrit ;  even  though  made  in  the 
very  language  of  the  petition,  it  would  be  a  nullity.    An  act  of 
parliament  against  tlu'  constitution  is  void."     The  majority  of 
the  judges  wcro  awe-struck,  and,  on  the  question  before  them, 


¥' 

■:J 


1    t' 


548  CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  xviii. 


believed  him  in  the  right,  Hutchinson  cowered  before  "  the 
great  incendiary"  of  Xuw  England.  The  crowded  audience 
seemed  ready  to  take  up  arms  against  the  arbitrary  enforce- 
ment of  the  restrictive  system ;  especially  the  youngest  barris- 
ter in  the  colony,  the  clioleric  John  Adams,  a  stubborn  and 
honest  lover  of  his  country,  extensively  learned  and  a  l)old 
thinker,  listened  in  rapt  admiration ;  and  from  that  time  could 
never  read  "  any  section  of  the  acts  of  trade  without  a  curse." 
The  people  of  the  town  of  Boston,  a  provincial  seaport  of 
merchants  and  ship-builders,  with  scarcely  fifteen  thousand  in- 
habitants, l)ecame  alive  with  pohtical  excitement.  It  seemed 
afi  if  the  words  spoken  on  that  day  were  powerful  enough 
to  break  the  paper  chains  that  left  to  America  no  free  highway 
on  the  seas  but  to  England,  and  to  open  for  the  New  World  all 
the  paths  of  the  oceans. 

The  old  members  of  the  superior  coixrt,  after  hearing  the 
arguments  of  Thacher  and  Otis,  inclined  to  their  side.  But 
Hutchinson,  who  never  grew  weary  of  recalling  to  the  British 
ministry  this  claim  to  favor,  prevailed  with  his  brethren  to  con- 
tinue the  cause  till  the  next  term,  and  in  the  mean  time  wrote 
to  England.  The  answer  came;  and  the  subservient  court, 
surrendering  their  own  opinions  to  ministerial  authority  and 
disregarding  law,  granted  writs  of  assistance  whenever  the  offi- 
cers of  the  revenue  applied  for  them. 

But  Otis  w  as  borne  onward  by  a  spirit  which  mastered  him, 
and  increased  in  vigor  as  the  storm  rose.  Gifted  with  a  sensi- 
tive and  most  sympathetic  nature,  his  tul  was  agitated  in  the 
popular  tempest  as  the  gold  leaf  in  tJ;  electrometer  flutters  at 
the  approach  of  the  thunder-cloud.  He  led  the  van  of  Ameri- 
can patriots ;  yet  impassioned  rather  than  cautious,  disinterested 
and  incapable  of  cold  calcidation,  now  foaming  with  rage,  now 
desponding,  he  was  often  like  one  who,  In  his  eagerness  to  rush 
into  battle,  forgets  his  shield.  Though  indulging  in  vehement 
personal  criminations,  he  was  wholly  free  from  rancor;  and, 
when  the  fit  of  passion  passed  away,  was  mild  and  easy  to  be 
entreated.  His  impulses  were  always  for  liberty,  and  full  of 
confidence  ;  yet  his  understanding,  in  moments  of  depression, 
would  shrink  back  from  his  omti  inspirations.  In  the  presence 
of  an  excited  audience,  he  caught  and  increased  the  contagion, 


1761.    THE  ACTS  OF  TRADE  PROVOKE  REVOLUTION.      549 

and  rushed  onward  with  fervid  and  impetuous  eloqiu nice;  but, 
away  from  the  crowd,  he  could  be  sootlicd  into  a  yielding  in- 
consistency. Thus  he  toiled  and  suflered,  an  uncertain  leader 
of  a  party,  yet  thrilling  and  informing  the  nmltitude;  not 
steadfast  in  conduct,  yet  by  flashes  of  sagacity  lighting  the 
people  aloiig  their  perilous  way;  the  man  of  the  American 
protest,  not  destined  to  enjoy  his  country's  triumph. 

The  subserviency  of  Hutchinson  increased  the  public  dis- 
content.    Men  lost  confidence  in  the  integrity  of  their  highest 
judicial  tribunal ;  for  innovations  under  pretence  of  law  were 
confirmed  by  judgments  incompatible  with  English  liberties. 
The^  admiidlty  court,  hateful  because   instituted  by  a  British 
parliament  to  punish  infringements  of  the  acts  of  trade  in 
America  without  the  intervention  of  a  jury,  had,  in  distribut- 
ing the  proceeds  of  forfeitures,  violated  the  statutes  which  it 
was  appointed  to  enforce.     Otis  endeavored  to  compel  a  resti- 
tution of  the  third  of  forfeitures,  wl  ich  by  the  revenue  laws 
belonged  to  the  king  for  the  use  of  the  province,  but  had  been 
misappropriated.    "  The  injury  done  the  province  "  was  admit- 
ted by  the  chief  justice,  who  yet  screened  the  fraud  by  incon- 
sistently asserting  a  want  of  jurisdiction  to  redress  it.     The 
court  of  admiralty,  in  which  the  wrong  originated,  had  always 
been  deemed  grievous,  because  unconstitutional ;  its  authority- 
seemed  now  established  by  judges  devoted  to  the  prerogative. 
Unable  to  arrest  the  progress  of  illiberal  doctrines  in  the 
courts,  the  people  of  Boston,  in  May  17G1,  with  unbounded 
and  very  general  enthusiasm,  elected  Otis  one  of  their  repre- 
sentatives to  the  assembly.     "  Out  of  this,"  said  Ruggles  to 
the  royalist  Chandler,  of  Worcester,  "  a  faction  will  arise  that 
will  shake  this  province  to  its  foimdation." 

Virginia  resisted  the  British  conmiercial  system  from  ab- 
horrence of  the  slave-trade.  The  legislature  of  Virginia  had 
repeatedly  shown  a  disposition  to  obstnict  the  commerce;  a 
deeply  seated  pubhc  opinion  began  more  and  more  to  avow  the 
evils  and  the  injustice  of  slavery ;  and,  in  1701,  it  was  proposed 
to  suppress  the  importation  of  Africans  by  a  prohibitory  duty. 
Among  those  who  took  part  in  the  long  and  violent  debate  was 
Eichard  Henry  Lee,  the  representative  of  Westmoreland.  De- 
scended from  one  of  the  oldest  families  in  Virginia,  he  had  been 


i ,    ; 


550  CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,    ep.  i.  ;  on.  xviii, 


*  t' 


educated  in  England;  his  first  recorded  speech  was  slavei*y, 
in  behalf  of  human  freedom.  In  the  continued  importation 
of  slaves,  he  forehoilod  danger  to  the  political  and  moral  in- 
terests of  the  Old  Domitiion ;  an  increase  of  the  free  Anglo- 
Saxons,  he  argued,  would  foster  arts  and  varied  agriculture, 
while  a  race  doomed  to  abject  bondage  was  of  necessity  an 
enemy  to  social  happiness.  He  painted  from  ancient  history 
the  horrors  of  servile  insurrections.  He  deprecated  the  bar- 
barous atrocity  of  the  trade  with  Africa,  and  its  violation  of 
the  equal  rights  of  men  created  like  oiu'selves  in  the  image  of 
God.  "  Christianity,"  thus  he  spoke  hi  conclusion,  "  by  intro- 
ducing into  Europe  the  ti-uest  principles  of  universal  benevo- 
lence and  brotherly  love,  happily  abolished  civil  slavery.  Let 
us  who  profess  the  same  religion  practice  its  precepts,  and,  by 
agreeing  to  this  duty,  pay  a  proper  regard  to  our  true  interests 
and  to  the  dictates  of  justice  and  humanity."  The  tax  for 
which  Lee  raised  his  voice  was  carried  through  the  assembly  of 
Virginia ;  but  from  England  a  negative  followed  every  colonial 
act  tending  to  diminifih  the  slave-trade. 

South  Carolina,  appalled  by  the  great  increase  of  its  black 
population,  endeavored  by  its  OAvn  laws  to  restrain  importations 
of  slaves,  and  in  like  manner  came  into  collision  with  the  same 
British  policy.  But  a  war  with  the  Cherokees  weaned  its  citi- 
zens still  more  from  Great  Britain. 

"  I  am  for  war,"  said  Saloue,  the  young  wan'ior  of  Estatoe, 
at  a  great  council  of  his  nation.  "  The  spirits  of  our  murdered 
brothers  still  call  on  us  to  avenge  them ;  he  that  will  not  take 
up  this  hatchet  and  follow  me  is  no  better  than  a  woman ; " 
and  hostilities  were  renewed.  To  reduce  the  mountaineers. 
General  Amherst,  early  in  1761,  sent  about  thirteen  hundred 
regulars,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  James  Grant,  the  same 
who,  in  1758,  had  been  shamefully  beaten  near  Pittsburg. 
The  province  added  as  many  more  of  its  own  citizens,  under 
the  command  of  Henry  Middleton,  who  counted  among  his 
officers  Ilonry  Laurens,  "William  Moultrie,  and  Francis  Marion. 

The  Cherokees  were  in  want  of  ammunition,  and  could  not 
resist  the  invasion.  The  English,  who  endured  hardships  and 
losses  in  reaching  and  crossing  the  mountains,  sojourned  for 
thirty  days  west  of  the  Alleghanies.     They  became  masters  of 


>  ! 


iroi-1762.  THE  ACTS  OF  TRADE  PROVOKE  REVOLUTION.  551 

every  town  in  the  middle  Bettloment,  iind  in  the  outside  towns 
which  lay  on  another  branch  of  the  TenncBsee;  and  drove 
thousands  of  their  inhahitants  to  wander  among  the  mountains. 

They  extended  their  frontier  seventy  miles  toward  the 
west ;  and  the  chiefs  wen;  compelled  to  repair  to  Charleston, 
and  there,  with  the  royal  governor  and  council,  to  covenant 
the  peace  and  friendship  which  was  to  last  as  long  as  the  light 
of  morning  should  dawn  on  their  villages,  or  fountains  gush 
from  their  hillsides.  Then  all  returned  to  dwell  once  more  in 
their  ancient  homes.  Around  them,  nature,  with  the  tran- 
quillity of  exhaustless  power,  renewed  her  beauty ;  but  for  the 
men  of  that  region  the  gladdening  confidence  of  their  inde- 
pendence in  their  mountain  fastnesses  was  gone. 

In  tliose  expeditions  to  the  valley  of  the  Tennessee,  Gads- 
den and  Middleton,  Moultrie  and  Marion,  were  trained  to  arms. 
At  Pittsburg,  the  Virginians,  as  all  agreed,  had  saved  Grant 
from  utter  ruin  ;  the  Carolinians  believed  his  return  from  their 
western  country  was  due  to  provincial  courage.  The  Scottish 
colonel  concealed  the  wound  of  his  self-love  by  supercilious- 
ness. Eesenting  his  arrogance  with  scorn,  Middleton  chal- 
lenged him,  and  they  met.  The  challenge  was  generally  cen- 
sured, for  Grant  had  come  to  defend  the  province;  but  the 
long-cherished  affection  of  South  Carolina  for  England  began 
to  be  mingled  with  disgust  and  anger. 

New  York  was  aroused  to  opposition,  because  within  six 
■weeks  of  the  resignation  of  iMtt  the  independency  of  the  judi- 
ciary was  struck  at  throughout  all  America.  On  the  death  of 
the  chief  justice  of  New  York,  his  successor,  one  Pratt,  a 
Boston  lawyer,  Avas  api)ointed  at  the  king's  pleasure,  and  not 
during  good  behavior,  as  had  been  done  "  before  the  late  king's 
death."  The  assembly  held  the  new  tenure  of  judicial  power 
to  be  inconsistent  with  American  liberty ;  Monckton,  coming 
in  glory  from  Quebec  to  entei  on  the  government  of  New 
York,  before  seeking  fresh  dangers  in  the  West  Indies,  cen- 
sured it  in  the  presence  of  the  council ;  even  Golden  advised 
against  it.  Pratt  himself,  after  his  selection  for  the  vacant 
place  on  the  bench,  wrote  that,  "  as  the  parliament  at  the  revo- 
lution thought  it  the  necessary  right  of  Englishmen  to  have 
the  judges  safe  from  being  turned  out  by  the  crown,  the  peo- 


-f 


''>3 


ifr   'I- 

I- .'r 


III  :i 


652  CONQUEST  OF  THE  WEST  AND  CANADA,  ep.  i.;  cri.  xviii. 

pie  of  New  York  cliilin  the  right  of  Englishmen  in  this  re- 
spect." IJut,  hi  November,  the  board  oi  trade  reported  to  the 
king  against  the  tenure  of  good  behavior,  as  "a  peniieious 
proposition,"  ''subversive  of  all  true  policy,"  "and  tending  to 
lessen  the  just  dependence  of  the  colonies  upon  the  govern- 
ment of  the  mother  country."  The  representation  found  favor 
with  the  king ;  and,  as  the  lirst-fruits  of  the  new  system,  on 
the  ninth  of  December  1701,  the  instruction  went  forth, 
through  Egremont,  to  all  colonial  governors,  to  grant  no  judicial 
commissions  but  during  pleasure. 

To  make  the  tenure  of  the  judicial  office  the  king's  will  was 
to  turn  the  bench  of  judges  into  instruments  of  the  preroga- 
tive, and  to  subject  the  administration  of  justice  tjiroughout  all 
America  to  an  arbitrary  and  irresponsible  power.  The  assem- 
bly of  New  York  rose  up  against  the  encro.  "hrient,  deeming 
it  a  dohberate  step  toward  despotic  authority ;  the  standing  in- 
struction they  resolved  should  be  changed,  or  they  would  grant 
no  salary  whatever  to  the  judges.  "  If  I  cannot  be  supported 
with  a  competent  salary,"  wrote  Pratt,  in  January  1702,  "  the 
office  must  be  abandoned,  and  his  majesty's  prerogative  nmst 
suffer."  "  Why,"  asked  Golden,  "  should  the  cliief  justices  of 
Nova  Scotia  and  Georgia  have  certain  and  fixed  salanes  from 
the  crown,  and  a  chief  justice  of  so  considerable  a  province  as 
this  be  left  to  beg  his  bread  of  the  people? "  And  he  reported 
to  the  board  of  trade  the  som'ce  of  opposition  in  Nev/  York 
saying :  "  For  some  years  past  three  popular  lawyers,  educated  in 
Connecticut,  who  have  strongly  imbibed  the  independent  prin- 
ciples of  that  country,  calumniate  the  administration  in  every 
exercise  of  the  prerogative,  and  get  the  applause  of  the  mob  by 
propagating  the  doctrine  that  all  authority  is  derived  from  the 
I)eople."  These  "  three  popular  lawyers  "  were  William  Liv- 
ingston, John  Moriu  Scott,  and  one  who  afterward  turned  aside 
from  the  career  of  patriotism,  the  liistorian  William  Smith. 

"  You  adore  the  Oliverian  times,"  said  Bernard  to  Mayhew, 
at  Boston.  "  I  adore  Him  alone  who  is  before  all  times,"  an- 
swered Mayhew ;  and  at  the  same  time  avowed  his  zeal  for  the 
principles  of  "  the  glorious  revolution  "  of  1G88,  especially  for 
"the  freedom  of  speech  and  of  writing."  The  old  Puritan 
strife  about  prelacy  was  renewed.    Mayhew  mai'shalled  public 


¥■ 

$'+,■■ 


1762.    TUE  ACTS  OF  TRADE  PROVOKE  REVOLUTION. 


553 


opinion  against  bisliopH,  whilo  Massachusetts,  under  the  guid- 
ance of  Otis,  dismissed  the  Episcopalian  Bollan,  its  lionest 
agent,  and,  intending  to  select  a  dissenter  who  should  be  able 
to  employ  for  the  protection  of  its  liberties  the  jiolitical  influ- 
ence of  the  nonconformists  in  England,  it  intrusted  its  affairs 
to  Jasper  Mauduit,  who,  though  a  dissenter,  was  connected 
through  his  l)rother,  Israel  Mauduit,  with  Jenkinson  and  Bute, 
with  Mansfield  and  the  king. 

The  great  subject  of  discontent  was  the  enforcement  of 
the  acts  of  trade  hy  the  court  o^  admiralty,  where  a  royalist 
judge  detennined  questions  of  property  without  a  jury,  on  in- 
formation funiished  by  crown  officers,  and  derived  his  own 
emoluments  exclusively  from  his  portion  of   the  forfeitures 
which  he  himself  had  full  power  to  declare.     The  governor, 
tco,  was  sure  to  lean  to  the  side  of  large  seizures ;  for  he  by 
law  enjoyod  a  third  of  all  the  fines  imposed  on  goods  that  were 
condemned.     The  legislature,  angry  that  Hutchinson,  as  chief 
justice,  in  defiance  of  the  plain  principles  of  law,  should  lend 
himself  to  the  schemes  of  the  crown  officers,  began  to  notice 
how  many  offices  he  had  accumulated  in  his  hands.     Otis,  with 
the  authority  of  Montesquieu,  pointed  out  the  mischief  of 
uniting  in  the  same  person  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial 
powers ;  but  four  or  five  years  passed  away  before  the  distinc- 
tion was  much  heeded,  and  in  the  mean  time  the  judges  were 
punished  by  a  reduction  of  their  salaries.     The  general  writs 
of  assistance,  which  were  clearly  illegal,  would  have  been  pro- 
hibited by  a  provincial  enactment  but  for  the  negative  of  the 
governor. 

The  people  were  impatient  of  the  restrictions  on  their  trade, 
and  began  to  talk  of  procuring  theiaselves  justice. 


i 


664  OVKRTIIUOW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  8Y8TEM.    uv.  i.;  cu.  six. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


■in 


THE   DAWN   OF   THE   NKW    UEI'UULK;.      UUTE  8   ADMINISTRATION. 

17G2-1703. 

TnK  qnccn,  pMII  in  her  lione^nnooTi,  expressed  her  joy  at 
the  resignation  of  Pitt.  George  (Irenviile,  by  con  'iiting  to 
take  the  conduct  of  the  public  l)UHines8  in  the  lionse  of  com- 
mons, estranged  himself  still  more  from  his  brother-in-law ; 
but  William  Pitt  was  still  a  great  power  above  the  cabinet  and 
in  the  state.  He  had  infused  his  o^v^l  spirit  into  the  anny  and 
navy  of  England.  The  strings  which  he  had  struck  still  vi- 
brated; his  light, like  that  of  an  ''annihilated  star,"  still  giuded 
his  country  to  deeds  of  danger  and  glory ;  and,  in  the  first  days 
of  January  1702,  the  king,  tardily  adopting  his  counsels,  de- 
clared war  against  Spain. 

The  Roman  Catholic  powers,  France,  Spain,  Austria,  and 
tlie  German  empire,  the  mighty  authorities  of  the  middle  age, 
blessed  by  the  consecrating  prayers  of  the  see  of  Rome,  were 
imited  in  arms ;  yet  the  policy  of  the  Vatican  could  not  control 
the  war.  The  federation  of  the  weaker  maritime  states  pre- 
sented itself  to  the  v»'orld  as  the  protector  of  equality  on  tao 
seas. 

In  profound  ignorance  of  the  state  of  politics  on  the  conti- 
nent, George  III.,  a  week  later,  directed  Sir  Joseph  Yorke,  the 
British  minister  at  the  Hague,  to  tempt  the  empress  of  Austria 
to  return  to  its  old  alliance  with  England  by  the  hope  of  some 
ulterior  acquisitions  in  Italy.  The  experienced  diplomatist 
promptly  hinted  to  his  employers  that  the  offer  of  the  ;stora- 
tion  of  Silesia  would  be  more  effective.  A  clandestine  propo- 
sition from  England  to  Austria  was  a  treacheiy  to  Frederic ;  it 
became  infinitely  more  so,  when  success  in  the  negotiation 


170? 


THE   DAWN   OF  TilK  NEW   ilElHThMO. 


555 


would  l.ave  i)lcHloro,l  EnpflandV  infliieiico  to  compel  Fmloric  to 
the  retrocession  of  Silcoia.  "  llcr  iiiii,c'i'iiil  niujeHty  and  her 
miniHter,"  Kaid  ICaunitz,  "cannot  understand  the  i,.-t>per  mean- 
ing of  this  conlidentlal  overture  of  the  English;"  and  it  did 
not  remain  a  secret. 

"  To  ter  ninato  this  deadly  war  advantageously,''  thus  UToto 
Frederic,  the  siime  month,  to  Oeorge  III.,  "there  is  need  of 
nothing  but  constancy  ;  l)ut  we  must  persevere  to  the  end.  I 
see  ditliculties  still  without  number;  instead  of  upi)alling  me, 
tiiey  encourage  me  by  the  hope  of  overce  .ing  them."  To 
break  or  bend  the  firm  will  of  the  king  of  Prussia,  tlie  Brit- 
ish king  and  his  favorite  invited  the  interposition  of  Russia. 
80  soon  a.s  it  was  k  lown  that  the  Empress  Elizabeth  was  no 
more,  and  that  she  hu  1  been  succeeded  by  her  nephew,  Peter 
III.,  who  was  devoted  a)  Frederic,  the  British  minioLer  at  St. 
Petersburg  receivod  a  credit  for  one  hundred  thousand  pounds 
to  be  used  as  bribes,  and  was  treacherously  instructed  by  Bute 
to  moderate  the  zealous  friendship  of  the  new  czar  for  tlie  great 
continental  ally  of  England. 

The  annies  of  itussia  were  encamped  in  East  Pnissia ;  to 
Gallitzin,  the  minister  of  Russia  at  London,  Bute  intimated 
that  England  would  aid  the  emperor  to  retain  the  conquest,  if 
he  would  continue  to  hold  the  king  of  Prussia  in  check.  But 
the  chivalric  czar,  indignant  at  the  ])erfidy,  enclosed  Gallitzin's 
despatch  to  Frederic  himself,  restored  to  him  all  the  conquests 
that  had  been  made  from  his  kingdom,  settled  with  him  a 
peace  including  a  guarantee  of  Silesia,  and  finally  transferred  a 
Russian  anny  to  his  camp.  The  Empress  Catharine,  who  be- 
fore midsummer  succeeded  her  husband,  withdrew  from  the 
war,  and  gave  Europe  the  exam}>le  of  moderation  and  neutral- 
ity. Deserted  by  England,  Frederic  trod  in  solitude  the  paths 
of  greatness. 

During  these  negotiations,  Monckton,  with  an  anny  of 
twelve  thousand  men,  assisted  by  Rodney  and  a  fleet  of  six- 
teen sail  of  the  line  and  thirteen  frigates,  appeared  off  Marti- 
nique; and,  in  February  17G2,  the  richest  and  best  of  the 
French  colonies,  strongly  guarded  by  natural  defences  which 
art  had  improved,  was  forced  to  capitulate.  Grenada,  St.  Lu- 
cia, St.  Vincent's,  were  soon  after  occupied. 


556  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM,    ep.  i.;  oh.  xix. 


I 


These  successes  encouraged  the  king's  friends  to  rid  them- 
selves of  Newcastle,  who  was  receiving  "all  kinds  of  disgusts" 
from  his  associates  in  the  caoinet.  On  occasion  of  Avitlihold- 
ing  the  subsidy  from  Pnissia,  he  indulged  with  Bute  his  habit 
of  complaint.  lie  relates  of  the  inteiwiew :  "  The  earl  never 
requested  me  to  continue  in  office,  nor  said  a  civil  thing  to 
me ; "  and,  most  lingeringly,  the  veteran  statesman  resigned 

"Willi  him  fell  the  old  whig  party,  which  had  so  long  gov- 
erned England.  It  needed  to  be  purified  by  a  long  conflict 
with  the  inheritors  of  its  methods  of  corruption  before  it  could 
enter  on  the  work  of  reform.  But  the  power  of  the  people 
was  coming  witli  an  energy  which  it  would  be  neither  safe  nor 
possible  to  neglect.  In  the  days  in  which  the  old  whig  party 
of  England  was  in  its  agony,  Eousseau  told  the  world  that 
"  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is  older  than  the  institutions 
which  restrain  it;  and  that  these  institutions  are  not  obhga- 
tory,  but  by  consent."  With  a  foresight  as  keen  as  that  of 
Lord  Chesterfield,  he  wrote :  "  You  put  trust  iii  the  existing 
order  of  society,  without  reflecting  that  thi^  order  is  subject  to 
inevitable  changes.  We  are  approaching  the  state  of  crisis  and 
the  age  of  revolutions.  I  hold  it  impossible  that  the  great 
monarchies  of  Europe  should  endure  much  longer." 

On  the  retirement  of  Newcastle,  Bute,  near  the  end  of 
May,  transferring  the  seals  of  the  northern  department  to 
George  Gren^dlle,  became  fii  t  lord  of  the  treasury,  the  fee- 
blest of  British  prime  ministers ;  Bedford  remained  privy  seal ; 
Egremont,  secretary  of  state  for  the  southern  department  and 
America ;  and,  early  in  June,  Halifax  entered  the  cabinet  as 
first  lord  of  the  admiralty ;  Charles  Townshend  was  still  secre- 
tary at  war,  yet  restless  at  occupying  a  station  inferior  to  Gren- 
^-ille's ;  Lord  North  retained  his  seat  at  the  treasury  board. 

But  the  exhausted  condition  of  France  compelled  her  to 
seek  peace;  in  February  and  March,  the  subject  had  been 
opened  for  discussion  through  the  ministers  of  Sardinia  in 
London  and  Versailles ;  and,  early  in  May,  Bute  was  able  to 
submit  his  project.  Bedford  approved,  and  accepted  the  em- 
bassy to  France. 

"A  good  peace  with  foreign  enemies,"  said  Hutchinson, 
from  ]\Iassachusetts,  as  early  as  March,  "  — ould  enable  us  to 


1762. 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  NEW  REPUBLIC. 


567 


make  a  better  defence  against  our  domestic  foes."  It  had  been 
already  decided  that  every  American  judge  sliould  hold  his 
appointment  at  the  royal  pleasure.  Hardy,  governor  of  New 
Jersey,  having  violated  his  instructions,  by  is  "uing  a  commis- 
sion to  judges  during  good  behavior,  was  promptly  dismissed ; 
and,  at  the  suggestion  of  Bute,  William  Franklin,  the  only  son 
of  the  great  adversary  of  the  proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania, 
became  his  successor. 

When  New  York  refused  to  vote  salaries  to  Pratt,  its  chief 
justice,  unless  he  should  receive  an  independent  commission,  the 
board  of  trade,  in  June  17G2,  recommended  that  he  should  have 
his  salaiy  from  the  royal  quit-rents.  "  Such  a  salary,"  it  was 
pleaded  to  the  board  by  the  chief  justice  himself,  "  could  not 
fail  to  render  the  office  of  great  service  to  his  majesty,  in  secur- 
ing the  dependence  of  the  colony  on  the  crown,  and  its  com- 
merce to  Great  Britain."  It  was  further  hinted  that  it  would 
insure  judgments  in  favor  of  the  crown  against  all  intnisions 
upon  the  royal  domain  by  the  great  landed  proprietors  of  New 
York,  and  balance  their  power  and  influence  in  the  assembly. 
Tlie  measure  was  adopted.  In  New  York,  the  king  instituted 
courts,  named  the  judges,  removed  them  at  pleasure,  fixed  the 
amount  of  their  salaries,  and  paid  them  independently  of  legis- 
lative grants.  The  system,  established  as  yet  in  one  oidy  of 
the  older  provinces,  was  intended  for  all.  "  The  people,"  said 
this  chief  justice,  who  was  transplanted  from  Boston  to  New 
York,  "  ought  to  be  ignorant.  Our  free  schools  are  the  very 
bane  of  society ;  they  make  the  lowest  of  the  people  infinitely 
conceited."  * 

The  king  expressed  his  displeasure  at  the  "  obstinate  "  diso- 
bedience of  the  assembly  of  Maryland,  and  censured  its  mem- 
bers as  not  "  animated  by  a  sense  of  their  duty  to  their  king 
and  country."  Tlie  reproof  was  administered,  so  wrote  Egre- 
mont,  "  not  to  change  their  opinion,"  but  "  that  they  may  not 
deceive  themselves  by  supposing  that  their  behavior  is  not 
seen  here  in  its  tnie  light."  A  similar  letter  conveyed  to 
Pennsylvania  "  the  king's  high  disapprobation  of  their  artfully 
evading  to  pay  any  obedience  to  requisitions." 

No  one  was  more  bent  on  reducing  the  colonies  to  impUcit 


*  Works  of  John  Adams,  ii.  97. 


558  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 


EP.  I. ;  en.  XIX. 


I 


ii' 


obedience  than  the  blunt  and  honest,  but  self-willed  duke  of 
Bedford,  who,  on  the  sixth  day  of  September  1762,  sailed  for 
France,  with  full  powers  to  negotiate  a  peace. 

His  negotiations  languished,  because  Grimaldi,  for  Spain, 
was  persuaded  that  the  expedition  of  the  English  against  Ha- 
vana would  be  defeated ;  but,  before  the  end  of  September, 
unexpected  news  arrived. 

Havana  was  then,  as  now,  the  chief  place  in  the  "West 
Indies,  built  on  a  harbor  large  enough  to  shelter  all  the  navies 
of  Europe,  capable  of  being  made  impregnable  from  the  sea, 
having  docks  for  constructing  ships-of-war  of  the  iirst  magni- 
tude, rich  from  the  products  of  the  surrounding  country,  and 
the  centre  of  tlie  trade  with  Mexico.  Of  this  magnificent  city 
England  undertook  the  conquest.  The  command  of  her  army, 
in  which  Carleton  and  Howe  each  led  two  battalions,  was  given 
to  Albemarle,  a  friend  and  pupil  of  the  duke  of  Cumberland. 
The  fleet  was  intrusted  to  Pococke,  abeady  illustrious  as  the 
conqueror  in  two  naval  battles. 

Assembling  the  fleet  and  transports  at  Martinique  and  off 
Cape  St.  Nicholas,  the  adventurous  admiral  sailed  directly 
through  the  Bahama  straits,  and  on  the  sixth  day  of  Jime  came 
in  sight  of  the  low  coast  round  Havana.  The  Spanish  forces 
for  the  defence  of  the  city  were  about  forty-six  hundred ;  the 
English  had  eleven  thousand  effective  men,  and  were  recruited 
by  nearly  a  thousand  negroes  from  the  Leeward  islands,  and  by 
fifteen  hundred  from  Jamaica.  Before  the  end  of  July,  the 
needed  re-enforcements  arrived  from  New  York  and  New  Eng- 
land ;  among  these  was  Putnam,  the  brave  ranger  of  Connecti- 
cut, and  numbers  of  men  less  happy,  because  never  destined  to 
revisit  their  homes. 

On  the  thirtieth  of  July,  after  a  siege  of  twenty-nine  days, 
during  which  the  Spaniards  lost  a  thousand  men,  and  the  brave 
Don  Luis  de  Yelasco  was  mortally  wounded,  the  Moro  Castle 
was  taken  by  storm.  On  the  eleventh  of  August,  the  governor 
of  Havana  capitidated,  and  the  most  important  station  in  the 
West  Indies  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Eughsh.  At  the  same 
time,  nine  ships  of  the  line  and  four  frigates  were  captured  in 
the  harbor.  The  booty  of  property  belonging  to  the  king  of 
Spain  was  estimated  at  ten  millions  of  dollars. 


i-U4 


1762. 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  NEW  KEPUBLIC. 


559 


This  siege  was  conducted  in  midsummer,  against  a  city 
which  lies  just  within  the  tropic.     The  country  round  the 
Moro  Castle  is  rocky.     To  bind  and  cany  the  fascines  was,  of 
Itself,  a  work  of  incredible  labor,  made  possible  only  by  aid  of 
African  slaves.     Sufficient  earth  to  hold  the  fascines  Urm  was 
gathered  with  difficulty  from   crevices  in  the  rocks.     Once, 
after  a  drought  of  fourteen  days,  the  grand  battery  took  lire 
from  the  flames,  and,  crackling  and  spreading  where  water 
could  not  follow  it  nor  earth  stifle  it,  was  wliolly  consumed 
The  climate  spoiled  a  great  part  of  the  provisions.     Wanting 
good  water,  very  many  died  in  agonies  from  thirst.     More  fell 
victims  to  a  putrid  fever,  of  which  the  malignity  left  but  three 
or  four  hours  between  robust  health  and  death.     Some  wasted 
away  with  loathsome  disease.     Over  the  graves  the  carrion- 
crows  hovered,  and  often  scratched  away  the  scanty  earth  which 
rather  hid  than  buried  the  dead.     Hundi-eds  of  carcasses  floated 
on  the  ocean.     And  yet  such  was  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Enghsh 
such  the  resolute  zeal  of  the  sailors  and  soldiers,  such  the  unity 
of  action  between  the  fleet  and  army,  that  the  vertical  sun  of 
June  and  July,  the  heavy  rains  of  August,  raging  fever,  and 
strong  and  well-defended  fortresses,  all  the  obstacles  of  nature 
and  art,  were  surmounted,  and  the  most  decisive  victory  of  the 
war  was  gained. 

The  scene  in  the  British  cal)inet  was  changed  by  the  cap- 
ture of  Havana.  Bute  was  indiflierent  to  further  acquisitions 
in  America,  for  he  held  it  "of  much  greater  importance  to 
bring  the  old  colonies  into  order  than  to  plant  new  ones;  "  but 
all  his  colleagues  thought  otherwise;  and  Bedford  was  unwill- 
ing to  restore  Havana  to  Spain  except  for  the  cession  of 
Porto  Eico  and  the  Floridas.  The  king,  who  persisted  in  the 
purpose  of  peace,  intervened.  He  himseK  solicited  the  assent 
of  Cumberland  to  his  policy  ;  he  ca^i^ed  George  Grenville,  who 
hesitated  to  adopt  his  views,  to  exchange  with  Halifax  the  post 
of  secretary  of  state  for  that  of  the  head  of  the  admiralty;  and 
he  purchased  the  support  of  Fox  as  a  member  of  the  cabinet 
and  Grenville's  successor  as  leader  of  the  house  of  commons  by 
the  offer  of  a  peerage. 

The  principal  representatives  of  the  old  whig  party  were 
driven  into  retirement,  and  the  king  was  passionately  resolved 


560  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM,    kp.  i.  ;  oh.  six. 


I!;.;- 


# 


never  again  to  receive  them  into  a  ministry.  In  the  impend- 
ing changes,  Charles  Townshend  coveted  the  administration  of 
America ;  and  Bute  gladly  offered  him  the  secretaryship  of 
the  plantations  and  board  of  trade.  Thrice  Townshend  had 
interviews  with  the  king,  whose  favor  he  always  courted ;  but, 
for  the  time,  he  declined  the  station,  from  an  unwillingness 
to  attach  himseK  to  Fox  and  Bute. 

At  that  moment,  men  were  earnestly  discussing,  in  Bos- 
ton, the  exclusive  right  of  America  to  raise  and  to  apply  its 
own  revenues.  The  governor  and  council  had,  in  advance  of 
authority  by  law,  expended  three  or  four  hundred  pounds 
sterling  on  a  ship  and  sloop,  that  for  the  protection  of  fisher- 
men were  to  cruise  against  privateers.  Otis,  in  September 
1762,  seized  the  opportunity  in  a  report  to  claim  the  right  of 
originating  all  taxes  as  the  most  darling  privilege  of  the  repre- 
sentatives. "  It  would  be  of  little  consequence  to  the  people," 
said  he,  on  the  floor  of  the  house,  "  whether  they  were  subject 
to  George  or  Louis,  the  king  of  Great  Britain  or  the  French 
king,  if  both  were  arbitrary,  as  both  would  be,  if  both  could 
levy  taxes  without  parliament."  "  Treason  I  treason ! "  shouted 
Paine,  the  member  from  Worcester.  "  There  is  not  the  least 
ground,"  said  Bernard,  in  a  message, "  for  the  insinuation  under 
color  of  which  that  sacred  and  well-beloved  name  is  brought 
into  question."  Otis,  who  was  fiery,  but  not  obstinate,  erased 
the  offensive  words ;  but  immediately,  claiming  to  be  one 

"Who  dared  to  love  his  country  and  be  poor," 
he  vindicated  himself  through  the  press. 

Invoking  the  authority  of  "  the  most  wise,  most  honest,  and 
most  impartial  Locke,"  "  as  great  an  ornament  as  the  church  of 
England  ever  had,"  because  "  of  moderate  and  tolerant  princi- 
ples," and  one  who  "  wrote  expressly  to  establish  the  throne 
which  George  III.  now  held,"  he  undertook  to  reply  to  those 
who  could  not  bear  that  "  liberty  and  property  should  be  en- 
joyed by  the  vulgar." 

Deeply  convinced  of  the  reality  of  "  the  ideas  of  right  and 
wrong,"  he  derived  his  argument  from  original  right.  "  God 
made  all  men  naturally  equal.  The  ideas  of  earthly  grandeur 
are  acquired,  not  innate.  Kings  were  made  for  the  good  of 
the  people,  not  the  people  for  them.    No  government  has  a 


1702. 


THE  DAWN  OF  THE  NEW  EE PUBLIC. 


561 


right  to  make  slaves  of  the  subject.  Most  governments  are,  in 
fact,  arbitrary,  and,  consequently,  the  curse  and  scandal  of  hu- 
man nature ;  yet  none  are,  of  right,  arbitrary.  By  the  laws  of 
God  and  nature,  government  must  not  raise  taxes  on  the  prop- 
erty of  the  people  without  the  consent  of  the  people  or  their 
deputies."  "The  advantage  of  being  a  Briton  rather  than  a 
Frenchman  consists  in  liberty," 

As  a  question  of  national  law,  Otis  maintained  the  rights  of 
a  colonial  assembly  to  be  ecpial  to  those  of  the  house  of  com- 
mons, and  that  to  raise  or  apply  money  without  its  consent  was 
as  great  an  innovation  as  it  would  be  for  the  king  and  house 
of  lords  to  usurp  legislative  authority.  Nor  did  Otis  fail  to 
cite  the  preamble  to  the  British  statute  of  1740,  for  naturaliz- 
ing foreigners,  where  "the  subjects  in  the  colonies  are  plainly 
declared  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  the  people  of  Great 
Britain." 

He  warned  "all  plantation  goveraors"  not  to  spend  their 
whole  time,  as  he  declared  "most  of  them"  did,  "in  extend- 
ing the  prerogative  beyond  all  bounds  ;"  and  he  pledged  him- 
self, "  ever  to  the  utmost  of  his  capacity  and  power,  to  vindicate 
the  liberty  of  his  country  and  the  rights  of  mankind." 

The  vindication  of  Otis  filled  the  town  of  Boston  with 
admiration  of  his  patriotism.  "A  more  sensible  thing,"  said 
Brattle,  one  of  the  council,  "  never  was  written."  By  the  roy- 
alists, its  author  was  denoimced  as  "  the  chief  incendiary,"  a 
"seditious"  "firebrand,"  and  a  "leveller."  "I  am  almost 
tempted,"  confessed  the  unpopular  Hutchinson,  "to  take  for 
my  motto,  Odi  profanum  vulgits,'"  hatred  to  the  people.  "  T 
will  write  the  history  of  my  o^vn  times,  like  Bisliop  Burnet, 
and  paint  characters  as  freely ;  it  shall  not  be  published  while 
I  live,  but  I  will  be  revenged  on  some  of  the  rascals  after  I  am 
dead;"  and  he  pleaded  fervently  that  Bernard  should  reserve 
his  favor  exclusively  for  "  the  friends  to  government."  "  I  do 
not  say,"  cried  Mayhew  from  the  pulpit,  on  the  annual  Thanks- 
giving Day,  «  our  invaluable  rights  have  been  struck  at ;  but,  if 
they  have,  they  are  not  wrested  from  us;  and  may  righteous 
Heaven  blast  the  designs,  though  not  the  soul,  of  that  man, 
whoever  he  be  among  us,  that  shall  have  the  hardiness  to  attack 
them." 

voi,.  II. — 36 


562  OVERTHROW  OF  TIIK  COLONIAL  SYSTEM,     kp.  i.;  ni.  xix. 


'  :k 


( 1 


.*!.   'J 


Tlio  kinj]:,  on  tlic  twenty-si xtli  of  October,  offerinj?  to  rctiini 
Haviui;i  to  Spain  for  either  the  Kloridas  or  Torti)  liieo,  wrote 
to  Bedford:  "Tlie  l)e8t  desjKiteli  I  ciin  receive  from  you  will 
be  these  ])reh'niiiiiines  sifj^ned.  May  Providence,  in  compassion 
to  human  misery,  give  you  the  means  of  executin<^  this  <2jreat 
and  noble  work."  The  terms  ])roposed  to  the  l^'rench  were 
severe  and  even  humihatini;:;.  "But  what  can  we  doV  said 
C'hoiseul,  who,  in  his  (U'spair,  luid  for  a  time  resigned  the 
foreign  department  to  the  J)uke  de  Prashn.  "The  EngUsh 
are  furiously  imperious;  ihey  are  druidc  with  success;  and,  un- 
fortunately, we  are  not  in  a  conchtion  to  abase  tlieir  pride." 
Fratice  yielded  to  necessity;  and,  on  the  third  day  of  Kovom- 
l)er,  the  i)reliminaries  of  a  peace  so  nu)mentous  for  America 
were  signed  between  l^'ance  and  Spain  on  the  one  side,  and 
Englaiui  and  Portugal  on  tlie  other. 

To  England  were  ceded,  besides  islands  in  tlio  West  Indies, 
tlio  Floridas;  Louisiana  to  tlie  Mississi])i)i,  but  without  tlie 
island  of  New  Orieans;  all  Canada;  Acadia;  (Jape  Breton  and 
its  de])endent  islands ;  and  the  fisheries,  except  that  France;  re- 
tained a  share  in  them,  with  the  two  islets  St.  Pien'O  and  Mi- 
(pielon,  as  a  shelter  for  their  fishermen.  On  the  same  day 
France  ceded  to  Spain  New  Orleans  and  all  Louisiana  west  of 
the  IMississippi,  In  Africa,  England  acquired  Senegal,  with 
the  connnatid  of  the  slave-trade.  In  the  East  Indies,  France 
recovered,  in  a  dismantled  and  ruined  state,  the  little  that  she 
possessed  on  the  first  of  January  IT-iO.  In  Europe,  Minorca 
reverted  to  Great  Britain. 

"•  England,"  said  the  king,  "  never  signed  such  a  peace  be- 
fore, nor,  I  believe,  any  other  power  in  Europe."  "  The  coun- 
try never,"  said  the  dying  Granville,  "  saw  so  glorious  a  war 
or  so  honorable  a  peace."  On  the  ninth  of  Decendier,  the 
preliminaries  were  discussed  in  parliament.  In  the  house  of 
commons,  Pitt  spolce  against  the  peace  for  more  than  three 
hours  ;  for  the  first  hour  admirably,  then  with  flagging  strength, 
"  though  with  an  indisputable  superiority  to  all  others ; "  Charles 
Townshend,  in  a  speech  of  l)ut  twenty -five  minutes,  answered 
him  "•  with  great  judgment,  wit,  and  strength  of  argument." 
On  the  division,  the  opponents  of  the  treaty  were  but  sixty- 
five  against  three  huudi'cd  aud  nineteen. 


I"U  i 


17li3. 


THE   DAWN   OF  THE   NEW   REPUBLIC. 


563 


On  tlio  tcMtli  of  F(!l)raiiry  1703,  tlio  trraty  was  ratified; 
and,  iive  days  aftorward,  tlio  lionj  of  Prussia  won  a  triunipli' 
for  frcodoui  Ity  the  glorious  treaty  of  llubertsimrg,  wliieh  gave 
security  of  existence  to  his  state  without  the  ceesion  of  a 
hand's-breadth  of  territory. 

Thus  wsw  arrested  the  course  of  carnage  and  misery;  of 
sorrows  in  private  life  iniinite  and  unfathomahle  ;  <jf  wretched- 
ness heaped  on  wretche<!ness ;  of  public  poverty  and  calamity; 
of  forced  enlistments  and  extorted  contributions ;  and  all  the 
tyranny  of  military  power  in  the  day  of  danger.  France  was 
exhausted  of  one  half  of  her  specie ;  in  many  parts  of  Ger- 
many there  remained  not  enough  of  men  or  of  cattle  to  renew 
cultivation.  The  mimbcr  of  the  dead  in  arms  is  computed  at 
eight  hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand  on  the  battle-fields  of 
Europe,  or  on  the  way  to  them.  And  all  this  waste  of  life 
and  of  resources  produced  for  those  who  planned  it  nothing 
but  weakness  and  losses.  Europe,  in  its  territorial  divisions, 
remained  exactly  as  before.  But  in  Asia  and  America  how  was 
the  world  changed ! 

In  Asia,  the  victories  of  C^live  at  Plasscy,  of  Coote  at  the 
Wand  i  wash,  ar-  of  Watson  and  Pococke  on  the  Indian  seas,  had 
given  England  the  undoubted  iiscendency  in  the  East  Indies, 
opening  to  her  suddenly  the  promise  of  territorial  acquisitions 
without  end. 

In  America,  the  Teutonic  race,  \vith  its  strong  tendency  to 
individuality  and  freedom,  was  ])eeome  the  master  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  poles ;  and  the  English  tongue,  which, 
but  a  century  and  a  half  before,  had  for  its  entire  world  parts 
only  of  two  narrow  islands  on  the  outer  verge  of  Europe,  was 
now  to  spread  more  widely  than  any  that  had  ever  given  ex- 
pression to  human  thought. 

Go  forth,  then,  language  of  ]\Iilton  and  Hampden,  lan- 
guage of  my  country,  take  possession  of  the  North  American 
continent !  Gladden  the  waste  places  with  every  tone  that  has 
been  rightly  struck  on  the  English  lyre,  with  every  English 
word  that  hius  been  spoken  well  for  liberty  and  for  man !  Give 
an  echo  to  the  now  silent  and  solitary  mountains ;  gush  out 
with  the  fountains,  that  as  yet  sing  their  anthems  all  day  long 
without  response  ;  fill  the  valleys  with  the  voices  of  love  in  its 


564  CVERTHROW  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SYSTEM,     kp.  i.  ;  en.  xu. 


toll 

'it?'!! 

Sm 

m 
m 


purity,  the  pledges  of  friendship  in  its  faithfulness ;  and  as 
the  morning  sun  drinks  the  dewdrops  from  the  flowers  all  the 
way  from  the  dreary  Atlantic  to  the  Peaceful  Ocean,  meet  him 
with  the  joyous  hum  of  the  early  industry  of  freemen !  Utter 
boldly  and  spread  widely  through  the  world  the  thoughts  of 
the  coming  apostles  of  the  people's  liberty,  till  the  sound  that 
cheers  the  desert  shall  thrill  through  the  heart  of  humanity, 
and  the  lips  of  the  messenger  of  the  people's  power,  as  he 
stands  in  beauty  upon  the  mountains,  shall  proclaim  the  reno- 
vating tidings  of  equal  freedom  for  the  race ! 

England  enjoyed  the  glory  of  extended  dominion,  in  the 
confident  expectation  of  a  boundless  increase  of  wealth.  Its 
success  was  due  to  its  having  taken  the  lead  in  the  good  old 
struggle  for  liberty;  and  its  agency  was  destined  to  bring 
fruits  not  only  to  itself  biit  to  mankind. 

In  the  first  days  of  January  1703,  it  was  publicly  avowed, 
what  had  long  been  resolved  on,  that  a  standing  anny  of 
twenty  battalions  was  to  be  kept  up  in  America  after  the  peace ; 
and  that  the  expense  should  be  defrayed  by  the  colonists  them- 
selves. To  carry  the  new  long-promised  measures  into  effect, 
thirteen  days  after  the  ratification  of  the  peace  of  Paris,  Charles 
Townshend,  at  the  wish  of  the  earl  of  Bute  and  with  the  full 
concurrence  of  the  king,  entered  upon  the  office  of  first  lord 
of  trade  with  a  seat  in  the  cabinet. 

During  the  negotiations  for  peace,  the  French  minister  for 
foreign  affairs  had  frankly  warned  the  British  envoy  that  the 
cession  of  Canada  would  lead  to  the  early  independence  of 
North  America.  Unintimidated  by  tlie  prophecy,  England 
happily  persisted.  So  soon  as  the  sagacious  and  experienced 
Vergennes,  the  French  ambassador  at  Constantinople,  a  grave, 
laborious  man,  remarkable  for  a  o.ilm  temper  and  moderation 
of  character,  heard  the  conditions  of  the  treaty,  he  said  to  his 
friends,  and  even  openly  to  a  British  traveller,  and  afterward 
himself  recalled  his  prediction  to  the  notice  of  the  British 
ministry :  "  The  consequences  of  the  entire  cession  of  Canada 
are  obvious.  I  am  persuaded  England  will  ere  long  repent  of 
having  removed  the  only  check  that  could  keei''  her  colonies  in 
awe.  They  stand  no  longer  in  need  of  her  protection;  she 
will  call  on  them  to  contribute  toward  supporting  the  burdens 


1768. 


TUE  DAWN  OF  THE  NEW  REPUBLIC, 


565 


they  havt  helped  to  bring  on  her ;  and  they  will  answer  by 
striking  oft'  all  dependence." 

The  colonial  system,  being  founded  on  injustice,  was  at 
war  with  itself.  The  common  interest  of  the  great  maritime 
powers  of  Europe  in  upholding  it  existed  no  more.  The 
seven  years'  war,  which  doubled  the  debt  of  England,  increas- 
ing it  to  seven  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  was  beg^m  by  her 
for  the  acquisition  of  the  Ohio  valley.  She  achieved  that 
conquest,  but  not  for  herself.  Driven  out  from  its  share  in 
the  great  colonial  system,  France  was  swayed  by  its  commer- 
cial and  political  interests,  by  its  wounded  pride,  and  by  that 
enthusiasm  which  the  support  of  a  good  cause  enkindles,  to 
take  u])  the  defence  of  the  freedom  of  +he  seas,  and  to  desire 
the  enfranchisement  of  the  English  plantations.  This  policy 
was  well  devised ;  and  England  became  not  so  much  the  pos- 
sessor of  the  valley  of  the  west  as  the  trustee,  commissioned 
to  transfer  it  from  the  France  of  the  middle  ages  to  the  free 
people  who  were  making  for  humanity  a  new  Ufe  in  America. 


END  OF  VOLUME   U. 


I 


■ 


Jtffc 


SCj ' 


HISTORY  OF  THE 

UNITED    STATES, 

From  the  Discovery  of  the  Continent.     By  Gkoroi-.  Rancroft. 
An  entirely  new  edition,  partly  rewritten  and  tiioroughly 
To  be  completed  in  six  volumes,  octavo. 


revised. 


The  author  has  made  extensive  thans^es  in  the  text,  condensing  in  places,  en- 
largiHii;  in  others,  and  carefully  revising.  It  is  practically  a  nan  wo>/:,  embody, 
ing  the  results  of  the  latest  researches,  and  enjoying  the  advantage  of  the  author's 
lon^i  and  mature  experience. 

The  original  octavo  edition  is  in  twelve  volumes.  The  present  edition  will  be 
completed  in  six  volumes,  octavo,  the  price  being  correspondingly  reduced.  Vol- 
umes I  AND  II  ARE  Nf)\v  READY.  The  other  volumes  ivillfoli,nv.,  it  is  hoped,  at 
intervals  of  four  months. 

EXTRACTS    FROM    REVIEWS. 
'•  The  merits  of  Bancroft's  '  History  of  the  United  States '  are  so  well  known  that 
httle  need  be  said  of  the  new  edition,  the  first  volume  of  which,  reaching  to  1688,  has 
just  been  published  in  very  handsome  form,  except  to  point  out  the  changes  since  the 
revision  of  1876.     One  of  the  most  prominent  is  the  introduction  of  a  division  into 
three  parts,  beginning  respectively  at  1492,  1660,  and  1688.     With  eacli  part  begins  a 
new  numbering  of  the  chapters,  and  the  difference  thus  created  between  the  editions  is 
increased  by  the  frequent  separation  of  one  chapter  into  two  or  three.     Thus  what 
was  chapter  two  in  1876  becomes  chapters  two,  three,  and  four,  in  1883,  and  what  was 
chapter  twenty-two  becomes  chapters  twelve,  thirteen,  and  fourteen,  of  part  second. 
In  all,  instead  of  twenty-seven  chapters  there  are  thirty-eight.     The  total  length  is  not 
increased,  but  rather  diminished,  since  there  are  many  omissions,  for  ir  itance,  of  Cap- 
tain Jolm  Smith's  apocryphal  adventures  in  Hungary,  the  evidence  for  which,  coming 
solely  from  tlie  hero  himself,   probably  seems  weaker  than  ever  to  Mr.  Bancroft. 
Among  passages  which  will  not  be  missed  is  this  about  the  Quaker  martyrs  :  '  They 
were  like  those  weeds  which  were  unsightly  to  the  eyes,  and  which  only  when  tram- 
pled give  out  precious  perfumes.'    Another  expunged  remark  is  that  Episcopalianism 
'  separating  itself  from  Protestantism  could  acknowledge  no  equal  except  the  Orthodox 
Greek  Church  and  that  of  Rome.'    With  these  sentences  have  been  rejected  many 
whose  meaning  was  given  in  the  context,  such  curtailment  being  especially  common  at 
the  beginning  and  end  of  chapters.     The  account  of  the  cliaracter  of  James  I  is  greatly 
abridged,  and  made  somewhat  less  severe.     In  the  place  of  the  charge  that  Oliver 
Cromwell's  riling  motive  was  ambition,  is  the  acknowledgment  that  in  his  foreign 
policy  he  was  most  certainly  faithful  to  the  interests  of   England.     The  notice  of 
Luther  i»  rewritten  and  enlarged,  mainly  by  apt  quotations  of  his  own  words.     There 
has  been  less  change  m  the  accounts  of  American  than  of  European  matters,  but  the 
most  important  addition,  anywhere,  is  that  of  two  pages  describing  and  praising  Cap- 
tam  Smith's  government  of  Virginia.     Often,  when  there  appears  to  be  an  addition  or 
omission,  there  is  in  reality  only  a  transposition.     The  whole  class  of  changes  may  be 
attributed  to  greater  maturity  of  judgment,  rather  than  to  discovery  of  new  material, 


Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States. — (Continued.) 


csixicidlly  as  no  notice  is  taken  of  recent  controversies  ;  for  Instance,  whether  CoUim- 
hus  really  lies  buried  at  Havana  or  San  Domingo  ;  wliothur  the  Pilgrims  landed  ex- 
actly on  the  day  of  the  winter  solstice,  as  is  apparently  Bancroft's  opinion,  aii<J  whether 
'  The  King's  Missive '  was  ever  sent,  as  told  by  VV'liittier.  Other  changes  aim  simply 
at  improvement  of  style.  The  volumes  are  printed  in  the  stately  octavo  style  o(  the 
first  edition,  which  seems  more  appropriate  to  such  a  standard  work  than  the  cheaper 
form  of  the  other  revision." — Boslon  Advertiser. 

"On  comparing  this  work  with  the  corresponding  volume  of  the  'Centenary' 
edition  of  1.S76,  one  is  surprised  to  see  how  extensive  changes  the  author  has  found 
desirable,  even  after  so  short  an  interval.  The  first  thing  that  strikes  one  is  the  in- 
creased number  of  chapters,  resulting  from  subdivision.  The  first  volume  contains 
two  volumes  of  the  original,  and  is  divided  into  thirty-eight  chapters  instead  of  eight- 
een. This  is  in  itself  an  improvement.  But  the  new  arrangement  is  not  the  1  suit 
merely  of  subdivision  :  the  matter  is  rearranged  in  such  a  manner  as  vastly  to  increase 
the  lucidity  and  coiuinuousnoss  of  treatment.  In  the  present  edition  Mr.  Bancroft  re- 
turns to  the  principle  ol  division  into  periods,  abandoned  in  the  '  Centenary '  edition. 
His  division  is,  however,  a  new  one.  As  the  permanent  shape  taken  by  a  great  histor- 
ical work,  this  new  arrangement  is  certainly  an  improvement."— 7V/<.'  Auiwit  {New 
i'ori). 

"  In  modifying  the  narrativ'c,  Mr.  Bancroft  tells  us  that  his  chief  aims  •  'jre  accur.icy 
and  lucidity,  and  that  '  no  well-founded  criticism  that  has  been  seen,  whether  made  here 
or  abroad,  with  a  good  will  or  a  bad  one,  has  been  neglected.'  Apparently  no  new 
material  of  particular  moment  has  been  inserted,  although  several  sketches  of  famous 
characters  have  been  rewritten  either  entirely  or  in  part.  The  work  as  a  whole  is  in 
better  shape,  and  is  of  course  more  authoritative  than  ever  before.  This  last  revision 
will  bo  without  doubt,  both  from  its  desirable  form  and  accurate  text,  the  standard 
one." — Boston  Traveller. 

"  It  has  not  been  granted  to  many  historians  to  devote  half  acentury  to  the  history 
of  a  single  people,  and  to  live  long  enough,  and,  let  us  add,  to  be  willing  and  wise 
enough,  to  revise  and  rewrite  in  an  honored  old  age  the  work  of  a  whole  lifetime. 
This  good  fortune  has  been  granted  to  Mr.  Ban-:roft,  and  he  has  largely  profited  by  it, 
as  have  also  the  majority  of  readers  among  his  own  countrymen,  who,  when  American 
history  is  in  question,  go  at  once  to  his  volumes  as  to  an  authoritative  tribunal,  and 
abide  by  his  decisions,  which  in  no  case  of  any  consequence,  we  believe,  have  ever 
been  seriously  or  for  long  disturbed."— AVw  York  Mail  arid  Express. 

"  The  extent  and  thoroughness  of  this  revision  would  hardly  be  guessed  v.-ithout 
comparing  the  editions  side  by  side.  The  condensation  of  the  text  amounts  to  some- 
thing over  one  third  of  the  previous  edition.  Thf  r.:.  has  ako  been  very  considerable 
recasting  of  the  text.  Ou  the  whole,  our  examination  >-i  the  i'rst  volume  U-ids  us  io 
believe  that  the  thought  of  the  historian  loses  no"  i;:  >■;  ti  e  .^breviatHn  of  ilie  text. 
A  closer  and  later  approximation  to  the  best  resuiis  oi  schoh'  hip  and  criticism  is 
reached.  The  public  gains  by  its  more  compact  brevity  and  in  nount  of  matter,  and 
in  economy  of  time  and  money."— r/w  Independent  {New  York). 

"  We  have  made  a  comparison  of  the  first  volume  with  the  edition  of  1876,  and  find 
that  the  work  has  been  largely  recast,  the  arrangement  of  the  chapters  and  the  minor 
divisions  has  been  changed,  many  portions  have  been  rewritten,  and  no  pains  have 
beer,  spared  in  making  necessary  corrections  as  the  result  of  criticism  on  the  work  or  of 


Bancroft's  History  of  tuh  llNiTKn  States.— (C<;«//««ft/,) 


further  invesfl;;:ation.  Many  who  purchased  the  last  edition  will  tf'f^at  that  they  did 
not  wait  for  the  author's  finnl  revisions  ;  but  wo  presume  tliat  he  liiui  no  intention  at 
the  time  it  was  issued  of  poinp  over  his  work  apain,  even  if  he  had  the  hope  of  living 
solonj^.  It  is  a  matter  of  tjeneral  con^jratulation  tliat  his  life  and  '  i^jor  have  been 
spared,  and  that  he  is  still  enj^a^ed  with  all  the  enerj^y  of  youth  in  his  important  lit- 
erary worlds.  The  octavo  volume,  just  issued,  is  a  fine  specimen  of  book-making,  in 
clear  type,  on  pood  paper,  and  is  neatly  bound."— AV?t/  I'orJi  Observer. 

"  During  the  half-century,  or  almost  that  time,  since  the  issue  of  Mr.  Bancroft's 
first  volume,  much  new  light  has  been  shed  upon  the  characters  and  events  of  the 
period  covered  by  the  '  History,'  and  no  small  proportion  of  it  is  due  to  the  con- 
troversies  aroused  by  the  volumes  as  they  successively  appeared.  Mr.  Bancroft  stood 
stoutly  by  his  original  text  until  the  time  came  for  the  issue  of  the  revised  edition  of 
1876,  ivhcn  it  was  evident  that  he  had  carefully  studied  the  criticisms  his  work  had 
received  during  the  preceding  forty-two  years  and  had  profit.-d  by  them.  Now  comes 
the  announcement  that  he  is  engaged  in  a  thorough  and  last  revision  of  the  whole 
work.  The  ten  volumes  of  the  original  edition,  and  the  two  volumes  is.sued  last  year, 
are  to  be  wholly  revised,  rewritten  where  necessary,  and  the  tw.^lvo  volumes  of  the 
former  issues  comprised  in  si.x  handsome  octavo  volumes.  The  entire  work  will  thus 
be  given  at  exactly  half  the  price  of  the  original  edition,  while,  judging  by  the  first 
installment  it  will  certainly  lose  nothing  by  comparison  so  far  as  appearance  goes,  and 
will  be  more  valuable  as  embodying  the  latest  information  and  containing  the  last 
touches  of  the  author's  \\a.r\(l."—Cicveland  (O/iw)  Herald. 

"  There  is  nothing  to  be  said  at  this  day  of  the  value  of  '  Bancroft.'  Its  aulhority 
is  no  longer  in  dispute,  and  as  a  piece  of  vivid  and  realistic  historical  writing  it  stands 
among  the  best  works  of  its  class.  It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  this  new  edition 
will  greatly  extend  its  \x?.ciw\\\fi%%."— Philadelphia  North  American. 

"  AVhile  it  is  not  quite  tnie  that  the  marks  of  Mr.  Bancroft's  revision  of  his  great 
history  of  the  United  States  are  visible  on  cver>'  page,  a  careful  comparison  of  the 
earlier  editions  and  this  shows  that  the  claim  to  improvement  is  by  no  means  ill-found- 
ed. Sometimes  whole  paragraphs  have  been  cut  out  ;  still  oftener  the  extravagances 
of  a  youthful  style  have  been  carefully  pruned,  and  the  gain  has  been  manifest  in 
sobriety  and  cik:ci."— Philadelphia  Press. 

"  The  merits  of  this  standard  work  arc  too  well  known  to  need  recapitulation,  and 
the  present  edition  will  roniprise  the  entire  original  work,  complete  in  six  volumes, 
and  published  at  half  the  price  of  the  original  edition.  The  type  is  somewhat  smaller, 
but  in  general  style  is  not  inferior.  The  first  volume  reaches  to  1688,  and  the  changes 
made  by  the  author  are  numerous,  and  some  of  them  important.  This  volume,  for 
instance,  is  divided  into  three  parts,  beginning  respectively  at  '492,  1660,  and  1668, 
and  with  each  part  begins  a  new  numbering  of  chapters.  There  are  many  omissions 
in  the  text— as  of  Captain  John  Smith's  adventures  in  Hungary-.  Some  sentences  in 
the  text  have  been  left  out ;  the  character  given  to  James  I  toned  down,  and  the  notice 
of  Luther  enlarged,  while  pages  have  been  added  describing  Captain  Smith's  nile  in 
Virginia.  Other  changes  are  chiefly  improvements  of  style  and  the  incorporation  of 
the  dates  into  the  text.  On  the  whole,  the  work  is  mucli  improved  in  its  new  dress 
and  revised  form,  and  will  be  welcomed  by  all,  for  Bancroft's  history  of  our  country  is 
siiW/acile princeps  among  histories  of  our  \an<\."— Chicago  Tribune. 

"  Mr.  Bancroft's  first  volume  appeared  in  iS;,^,  and  he  has  been  engaged  upon  the 


f 


*l 


4  Bancroft's  Histdrv  of  the  Umtko  Staifs. — {^Continued.) 

history  almost  ever  since  he  was  a  student  ai  Guttinj^en.  The  re-issue  of  the  work,  so 
that  each  part  should  be  what  his  later  opinion  approved,  can  hardly  be  more  satis- 
factorj'  to  the  venerable  liistori.in  than  it  is  to  the  (generation  whicli  fust  approaches 
his  great  work  in  the  final  forms  of  Its  literary  execution.  In  this  final  revision  Mr. 
Hancroft  has  not  only  corrected  all  mistakes  and  errors  of  fact,  so  far  as  they  have 
been  .iscertained,  but  has  revised  tlie  style,  taken  the  wind  out  of  pomjious  sentences, 
and  brought  the  whole  work  within  tht  laws  of  good  writin};  and  within  the  unity  of 
plan  with  wliich  he  had  set  out  at  the  beginning.  Thus  far  he  has  removed  many  of 
the  objeclions  whicli  stood  aj;ainst  his  history  as  a  work  of  permanent  value  ;  and 
there  is  ;>  certain  solid,  thorough,  substantial  character  to  his  great  history  which  gives 
it  a  permanent  weight  in  the  world  of  letters.  The  work  now  takes  rank  with  the 
best  histories  of  the  school  of  philosophical  narrative  to  which  the  author  belongs."— 
Boston  Herald. 

"  The  marvelous  industry  and  the  earnest  conscientiousness  which  the  venerable 
historian  exhibits  in  revising,  recasting,  and  in  part  rewriting  the  great  work  of  his 
life,  not  only  compel  respect  and  admiration  on  their  own  account,  but  they  become 
also  the  strongest  guarantees  of  the  accuracy  of  his  sc  lolarship,  of  his  lidelity  to  truth, 
of  the  exalted  conception  which  he  entertains  of  his  task,  and  therefore"  of  the  sub- 
stantial excellence  of  his  history.  The  edition  of  1876  exhibited  no  little  pruning  and 
correction  ;  but  the  author  has  again  gone  over  the  entire  field,  and,  with  a  care  and 
devotion  worthy  of  the  theme  and  of  his  reputation,  has  wrought  what  he  says  must 
be  his  last  revision.  This  latest  edition  will  be  sought  by  many  who  iiave  for  years 
been  familiar  with  its  predecessors.  The  publishers  deserve  credit  for  presenting  so 
great  a  work  in  such  excellent  guise,  and  the  author  may  accept  it  as  a  noble  monu- 
ment tt)  perpetuate  his  fame.  But  may  he  be  spared  to  add  many  chapters  to  his 
history,  and  bring  it  down  to  a  later  period  I  "—Utica  {xX.  Y.)  Herald. 


To  bo  comploted  in  sii  ?olur.,os,  octavo,  Imndsomoly  |irinlod  from  now  typo.     Cloth,  nncut,  with  gilt  top. 
$2.50;  shopp,  $3.50;  and  lialf  calf,  $4.50  por  rolunio. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  i,  3,  &  5  Bond  Street,  x\cw  York. 


I 


r 


HISTORY  OF  THE 

PEOPLE  oi  THK  UNITED   STATES, 

From  the  Revolution  to  tlio  Civil  War.     Hy  John  lUni  McMasikk.     To 

bo  ooiiiplotL'd  in  (ivc  volunios.      Voliiiiie  I  now  rciuly.      Svo. 

('lot)i,  f^ilt  top,  *2.B0. 


SCOI'K   OK  THK   WoUK. 

Jn  //ic  course  of  Ifm  narrative,  vinch  is  written  of  imrf:,  conspirncicn,  and  re- 
bellionn  ;  of  Presidents,  of  Cont/reHses,  of  einhassies,  of  treaties,  of  the  iDnfiition  of 
poUlic.al  leaders,  and  of  the  rise  of  great  /larties  in  the  nation.  Yet  the  history 
of  the  people  is  the  chief  theme.  At  ever//  sla(/e  of  the  splendid  progress  which  sepa- 
rates the  America  of  Washington  and  Adams  from  the  America  in  which  we  line, 
a  has  licen  the  author's  purpose  to  describe  the  dress,  the  ocenpalioiis,  the  amuse- 
ments, the  liteniri/  caiionx  of  the  times  ;  to  note  (he  changes  of  manners  and  morals  ; 
to  trace  the  growth  of  that  humane  spirit  which  aliolished  pnnishinent  for  dibl  and 
reformed  the  discipline  of  prisons  and  of  jails  ;  to  recount  the  manifold  impi-ovc 
menls  which,  in  a  thousand  wai/s,  hare  multiplied  the  conveniences  of  life  and  min- 
istered to  the  happiness  of  oar  raee  ;  to  deserihe  the  rise  and  progress  of  that  long 
series  of  mechanical  inventions  and  discoveries  U'hich  is  now  the  eulmiration  of  the 
world,  and  our  Just  pride  and  boast  ;  to  tell  how,  under  the  benign,  infucnce  of  lit,, 
ertg  and  peace,  there  sprang  up,  in  the  course  of  a  single  ccntnrg,  a  prosperi/i/  nn. 
paralleled  in  the  an)ials  of  human  affairs. 

"The  plcil^'n  p;ivon  by  >f  r.  McM.mtcr.  Ilmt  '  llii>  hi^torv  of  tti<>  pcophi  sluill  lir  tlio  chief 
thomn,'  is  nuiictiliouHly  miil  Hiitisllii'lorily  riillillud.  lie  CiuricH  oiil,  lus  pnmiiM;  in  a  fuiii- 
pl(!ti',  viviil,  nm\  <lcli,i,'hll'nl  wuy.  \V((  hIioiiIcI  add  tliiit  th(^  lilcrarv  cxiciilion  of  tlii'  \v(irk 
IH  worlliy  of  till!  in(l(!futi^'ahl('  induHtry  and  unccaHii,:;  vit;il.nic('  \vilti  wliicli  tlic  MlorcH  of 
lilHtorical  material  liavc  li.  .11  acfiiinulated,  win^dicd,  and  Hiftod.  'I'hc  eardinai  (iiialilicH 
of  ntyli',  lucidity,  animation,  and  cncru'y,  aro  i-vcrywlicrc  iircHciit.  Seldom,  iiidccil  lian -i 
nook,  in  .vliidi  matter  of  HtibHtantial  value'  lias  been  ^o  happily  united  to  attractiveneHH  ol 
form,  been  olfered  by  an  American  author  to  liiw  lellow-eitizenH."— A,  w  York  Sun. 

"To  n^count  tlio  mnrveloiis  prot;reHS  of  the  American  people,  to  dencribo  their  life, 
their  lilemture,  their  occupatioim,  their  aiinisenieiitH,  Ih  Mr.  McMaHler'H  object.  IliH  llii'nm 
JH  an  important  one,  and  wo  eon^'ratnlale  him  on  hiH  hucci^hh.  It  ban  rarely  been  our  prov- 
ince to  nniice  a  hook  with  ho  muny  i^xccdlence-i  and  no  few  del'eclH,"— A'(;w  York  Ihrald. 

"  Mr.  .VIcMaHter  at  once  nhowH  liiM  rrraHO  of  the  various  themes  and  his  specinl  eapacitv 
as  n  historian  of  the  people.  His  aim  \%  \w^\.  but  he  hits  the  mark. "-A,  w  York  Jt/.'mal 
of  Cmnmercei. 

•'  I  have  had  to  read  a  good  deal  of  hiBtory  in  my  day,  but  I  find  bo  much  frnslincBfl  in 
,.,","''!'','  '■"'^^'*""""  McMaster  has  treated  bis  subject  that  it  is  oiiile  like  a  new  storv."— 
I'Inladd iMa  I'ress.  ' 

"Mr.  .MeMaifor's  rucpcsh  as  a  writer  •Jcems  tons  ('.istincl  and  decisive!.  In  the  nr<t 
place  he  has  written  a  remarkably  readable!  history.  ITis  styl"  is  clear  and  vitioroiiH  if  imi 
always  ciindensed.  lie  has  the  faculty  of  IV|i(!itoUH  conipar'is.m  mid  ciditnisl  in  a  marlii  .1 
dcureo.  Mr.  McMaster  has  produced  one  of  the  most  spirited  of  hi-'tories.  a  book  which 
will  he  Willi  ly  read,  and  the  enterlaiiiini;  (iiiality  of  which  in  conspicuous  hevond  that  of 
any  work  ol  its  kind."'— Wostort  (?az«Jfe. 


For  sale  bi/  all  booksellers  ;   or  sent  hg  mail,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price. 
New  York  :  D.  AITLETOX  .^  CO.,  1,  y,  &  5  Bond  Street. 


I 


A  BIOGRAPHY  OF 

WILLIAM    CULLEN    BRYANT, 

With  Extracts  from  hi.s  Private  Correspondence.     %  Tauki:  <;oi)\vin. 
With  Two  Portraits  on  Steel :   one  from  a  Painting  by  Horse 
taken  in  1825,  and  one  from  a  Photograph  talvcn  in  ISIS. 
In  two  volumes,  square  8vo,  cloth,  $0  00. 
Containing  a  full  account,  from  authtiitic  .sources,  of  the  poet's  ..ncestrv  of 
h,s  boyhood  ,n„ong  the  Hampshire  hills;  of  his  early  pocms^of  hi    ufn'ars' 
life  as  a  country  lawyer;  of  his  long  editorial  career  in  Kcw  York  -of         inter- 
course with  contemporaries;  of  his  travels  abroad  and  at  home     of    1  e  o  i^  i    of 
^J^lie'i^irr;;' .S^  '-'''-'  ^^'^^  '  ^^  '--  «P->-  and^a^il^^sf  "^ 

Jnt  r  St  '"*  tJ'V'^l'^POV^''''-'''  tl'*' Woprapherielt  him.elf  impelled  to 
lite  ar  ,■".,  W?  '^^J^''^"/,^' '  '"  ^"  '^'^'^'-''^We  spirit  of  candor,  and  with  rcnu.-kable 
l.terarv^  ab.I  ty      Mr.  (,odwm  has  produced   a  book  ^vhich,  like  Mnsson's  '  Life  of 

T,  Ho  «l?,f  .  p'T  "°''"  ''"'"''"'■'y  described  as  a  history  than  as  a  memoir. 
thnnH?.  P,  i  ^V"T"*''  >"i>;ncrS  to  those  who  would  survey  ihe  growth  of 

hrJ  1^  t  V ■'Jr'  rehnement,  m  New  England  and  Kew  York  during  the  first 
ilformai  n  !  the  present  century,  these  volun.es  will  prove  a  mine  of  precious 
it^format  on,  garnered  from  the  wide  and  varied  experience  of  a  busy  ife  and 
a  citrn  iT  T  '""I'i'  "tP"*^.-''?  '^  l'""«'>f  "n  accmnplished  man  of  fetters  anS 
IhouX?,,^  „n ,  'T  i^-  ^^"'  •'  ^''"''1  ^">'  '"^"^  '"  *''^"^«  full-freighted  pages  of 
wh  Ph  t.!l  ,  ^  ■  '"''^"  "'""°'"*  ""  *^°  I'"''^'^^'l  I'™'^''^">«  "nJ  eontroversTes  by 
iT.t  n  ^  ,  .';"^'''  """'^,  "''^  o'^cup.ed  during  the  crucial  period  of  our  national  evo- 
lution,  which  happened  to  be  synchronous  with  Mr.  IJryant's  life."— Xt ic  Vor/c  Sn?i. 

THE  POETICAL  WORKS  OF 

WILLIAM    CULLEN    BRYANT. 

Edited  by  Parkk  Godwin.     In  two  volumes,  scpiare  8vo,  uniform  with 
the  "  Biography."     Cloth,  gilt  top.     Price,  $0.00. 

wlfJJin'',;V'!'""'  ""''■  T^  •^^•^'■•y^t"-'^  e-^'tion  of  Bryant's  Poetical  Works,  printed 

.,     .  w-H    i'-'"?"       '  '""*'"•"  =  ^-    ^^"  ^''•-  ^■••^■'^"t'^  1'°™'-''  tl'at  have  hitherto 

api  ..annl,  with  lus  latest  corrections.      2.  .«ixty  or  more  never  before  collected 

"'The  T"ir''v  ^''-''^'-rf'^'f"!  'V,'""-^.  'i"^'  ''^  ^'ompanion  piece  to  "Sella"  and 
Jll     y  •'  f.  "^  ^'"  .^'''"'-       ^'  ^'"'l''*^"-'  ""^^'^  ''.V  I'«'-k«  ti'Hiwin,  giving 

infTr     "•'?'  '"     "^  '""''^  '■"P«'-f'^"t  P"C"i^  an  account  of  their  origin,  and  other 
interesting  information.  "    ' 

7%;.s-  e.Unonofthe  Poetical  Works  of  WiUiam  CuUm  Bryant  forms  Volumes  111 
andl\  of  the  elegant  library  edition  of  Jiis  complete  tcoris,  7iow  in  course  of 
publication.  -^ 

To  be  followed,  in  uniform  stylo,  by 

ORATIONS   AXD    ADDRKSSES,     In  one  volume 
SKETCHES   OF   TRAVEL.     In  one  volume. 


Neu-  York:  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  1,  n,  &  r>  Hond  Street. 


I 


